"Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world."-Nelson Mandela. The message Mr. Mandela portrays in this quote is one reason that I decided to pursue a career in teaching.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to become a teacher. My first role model was my very own mother, who was a third grade teacher at a Catholic School but has since found a home teaching kindergarteners at a public school in the next town over. She was the person who got me excited for school, excited for learning, and excited to meet more teachers who had the same compassion for their jobs and their students as she did.
Even at the ripe young age of five, I got great joy out of watching the third graders of Piqua Catholic walk into school on the first day, new book bags and pencils in hand, just as eager as their teacher to take on a whole new year of learning. I knew I would never experience that kind of eagerness and thirst for knowledge anywhere else, no matter how hard I looked.
Though my mom is a very large part of the reason that I want so badly to become a teacher, she is just that-a part. In about third grade, I realized just how important each one of my teachers had been to me and how much they had affected my life in just the short amount of time that we had been together. I found myself remembering specific quotes from my past teachers and applying things that they had taught me to my life everyday. I knew from that point on that teaching was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Since making my decision to become a teacher, I have had more people than I can count ask me, "Why do you want to be a teacher?" When most people (non-teachers) ask me this, it is usually followed by the statement, "Teachers don't make very much money at all." and the question, ""What's in it for you?" Though that question seems to be tough for most people to come up with an answer to, for me, it's a simple answer. If we are going to change the world for everybody, we must first change the world for one person. Teaching is the best opportunity we have at changing the lives of children. If just one teacher decides to teach, he/she is choosing to not only teach, but to give hope to his/her students, to make a difference in the community in which he/she teaches, and to spread love to others. I always tell people, "Teaching is not about the salary, nor is it about getting summers off. Teaching is about that feeling that you get when you watch as a students learns a concept that will stick with him/her for the rest of his/her life, and knowing that, however small, from then on, you will always be a part of his/her life."
The summer right after I graduated from high school, I spent two months doing missionary work at an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. During my time there, I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the language. I saw so much poverty and need in such a tight space; people in great need of help which they would have readily received had they been born just twenty minutes north. My heart ached for the people of Tijuana-for the children running around naked because their parents couldn't afford clothes and for the parents and grandparents digging through trash bins to find food that had been thrown out just so that they could feed their family and keep themselves alive for one more night. I knew that I had to do something, and I knew that I belonged in Mexico. The only answer I could come up with was what I had learned to value my whole life-education. If I could just touch one child's life, they could reach out to their family, their family to the community, the community to the region, and so on. All of those people's lives changed just by teaching one child such simple things as reading, writing, and good hygiene! Now, imagine if I taught 20, 200, even 2,000 children within my lifetime! How many lives would I be able to change then?
Becoming a teacher, to me, means so much more than sitting at a desk in front of 24 students, writing lessons and handing out homework. It means being involved in each of the students' lives, understanding their different backgrounds, and doing my best to understand where each one of them is coming from. Being a teacher means being a role model for my students, demonstrating to them good morals and how to treat others. It means being with a student for a short time, but playing a part in his/her life forever. Being a teacher means having a family that extends way beyond blood relation, and teaching a student body that extends way beyond the classroom.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to become a teacher. My first role model was my very own mother, who was a third grade teacher at a Catholic School but has since found a home teaching kindergarteners at a public school in the next town over. She was the person who got me excited for school, excited for learning, and excited to meet more teachers who had the same compassion for their jobs and their students as she did.
Even at the ripe young age of five, I got great joy out of watching the third graders of Piqua Catholic walk into school on the first day, new book bags and pencils in hand, just as eager as their teacher to take on a whole new year of learning. I knew I would never experience that kind of eagerness and thirst for knowledge anywhere else, no matter how hard I looked.
Though my mom is a very large part of the reason that I want so badly to become a teacher, she is just that-a part. In about third grade, I realized just how important each one of my teachers had been to me and how much they had affected my life in just the short amount of time that we had been together. I found myself remembering specific quotes from my past teachers and applying things that they had taught me to my life everyday. I knew from that point on that teaching was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Since making my decision to become a teacher, I have had more people than I can count ask me, "Why do you want to be a teacher?" When most people (non-teachers) ask me this, it is usually followed by the statement, "Teachers don't make very much money at all." and the question, ""What's in it for you?" Though that question seems to be tough for most people to come up with an answer to, for me, it's a simple answer. If we are going to change the world for everybody, we must first change the world for one person. Teaching is the best opportunity we have at changing the lives of children. If just one teacher decides to teach, he/she is choosing to not only teach, but to give hope to his/her students, to make a difference in the community in which he/she teaches, and to spread love to others. I always tell people, "Teaching is not about the salary, nor is it about getting summers off. Teaching is about that feeling that you get when you watch as a students learns a concept that will stick with him/her for the rest of his/her life, and knowing that, however small, from then on, you will always be a part of his/her life."
The summer right after I graduated from high school, I spent two months doing missionary work at an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. During my time there, I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the language. I saw so much poverty and need in such a tight space; people in great need of help which they would have readily received had they been born just twenty minutes north. My heart ached for the people of Tijuana-for the children running around naked because their parents couldn't afford clothes and for the parents and grandparents digging through trash bins to find food that had been thrown out just so that they could feed their family and keep themselves alive for one more night. I knew that I had to do something, and I knew that I belonged in Mexico. The only answer I could come up with was what I had learned to value my whole life-education. If I could just touch one child's life, they could reach out to their family, their family to the community, the community to the region, and so on. All of those people's lives changed just by teaching one child such simple things as reading, writing, and good hygiene! Now, imagine if I taught 20, 200, even 2,000 children within my lifetime! How many lives would I be able to change then?
Becoming a teacher, to me, means so much more than sitting at a desk in front of 24 students, writing lessons and handing out homework. It means being involved in each of the students' lives, understanding their different backgrounds, and doing my best to understand where each one of them is coming from. Being a teacher means being a role model for my students, demonstrating to them good morals and how to treat others. It means being with a student for a short time, but playing a part in his/her life forever. Being a teacher means having a family that extends way beyond blood relation, and teaching a student body that extends way beyond the classroom.
