Being involved with activities that had me working with children led me into education. Even as a teenager, seeing kids interact with one another, interact with counselors, coaches, and teachers, and grow through skills that were being taught to them instilled how much value there is in teaching our youth. Knowing this imprinted a sense of responsibility to help mold and guide these children who are in the driver’s seat of our future.
I currently teach Learning Support (Language Arts) at the Middle School level and have held this position for two years. Before that, I spent four years between being the Autistic/Emotional Support teacher and Life Skills teacher. For all six years of teaching, I have also been a coach for various middle school sports teams (Basketball, Soccer, Track, and Field).
I still feel that teachers make huge impacts on children’s lives. Every day, for a teacher, is an opportunity to send a message of acceptance, kindness, and empathy to our students. These messages hold the key to unlocking a vast new future where everyone feels as though they can learn and be who they are without barriers or judgments.
As someone who sees first hand how students interact with the world, I cannot think of a greater responsibility. Although I have forgotten grammar rules, math formulas, and historical facts over time, I have never forgotten the teachers who treated my classmates and me with patience, understanding, and concern. Even though they might not know it, those are values and lessons that I have held through every aspect of life. I want to pass down those values and lessons to each of my students.
I hope that one day teaching truly goes beyond numbers and letters. That students’ needs that fall outside of what we call “traditional” can be met. I see the role of the teacher as more complex than it has ever been, but I have not seen teachers’ mindsets shift to meet this new role. I hope that teaching children how to be great people can become as important as teaching them multiplication tables.