If you had walked up to me during my senior year at high school and told me that I would one day be a certified elementary school teacher and loving it, I would have laughed in your face. At that point, I had not the slightest attraction toward teaching as a career. I was toying with the idea of occupational therapy or sales and marketing for a business I loved, but didn’t really have any clear idea about what I wanted to do with my life. It wasn’t until about a year after graduation that my current track came into view. The frustrating thing was that my parents, peers, and co-workers all knew that I would end up working with children. I had reasons for not wanting to be a teacher. First, I was done with working in the community garden and having swimming lessons once a week and both activities were part of the summer program in our communities’ schools. As a young female teacher I knew that that was where I was needed and that is where I would be. Second, in my mind, good teachers are funny, creative, and at least a little bit crazy; I did not see myself in any of these descriptions. Third, I was aware that being with children means dropping many of my personal peeves, being ready to change my plans to meet the class’s needs, and ultimately putting the children’s well-being above my own. This sounds terrible, but as a teenager I was not ready to do that. Finally, there was this sticky point that was kind of a product of the three previous reasons: I didn’t like being with kids.
So how did I get from “I don’t like being with kids” to enrolling in a five-year-teacher education program? Initially it was simple obedience. I live in a church community in which we share our income, material goods, our labor, and our faith. This means that I submitting my own wishes and plans to the needs of the world wide church community. During my first year after graduating, our church realized that we needed more certified educators, and I was asked if I would consider studying education. Of all the possibilities, this seemed relatively harmless, and at the time that this request was voiced, I had been working in the community daycare for nine months (also out of obedience) and was finding out how much I enjoyed working with children. I agreed to do the training and five months later was enrolled in a pre-elementary education.
Even before I knew I was heading in the line of education, I had plenty of experiences with children. In our school, fifth through eighth grade students were paired with a younger student for whole-school activities and I learned by observation of my peers and by trial and error what is effective in trying to convince a stubborn seven-year old to do what you tell them to do. As I mentioned, I also worked in a daycare with one-year-old children and a range of other ages as a sub or interim teacher. I also volunteered at the school where my mother taught fifth grade and as I observed her and her co-workers I always felt that they had something that I definitely did not have – something that made them selfless, creative, authoritative, and just so teacher-like.
(image from Pixabay)
I believe in the teacher as a facilitator of knowledge – one who creates a supportive and stimulating environment that encourages children to seek out knowledge and take learning into his or her own hands. I see a teacher as one who must have a firm authority in the classroom, not to control her students, but to ensure that the classroom environment is happy, organized, and fully conducive to learning. Teachers are there to make each child aware of the capabilities and talents he or she possesses so that learning is exciting and intrinsically motivating. The teacher does have knowledge for students to gain, but it should be transferred through some creative instructional medium that leads the students to discover knowledge on their own.
Anetta Shirky 