Why I became (or want to become) a teacher

I didn't want to be a teacher at first.  I wanted to be a journalist or novelist.  But my father was adament that I get a degree in an area that would provide a "real job".  I actuallyt  hated teaching the first few years and after three years I moved home thinking I would never teach again.  Instead, I subbed and discovered that I really liked students.  And that's what it took for me to recommit to teaching.  It's now been 20 years and I can't see myself doing anything else.  I truly love what I do.

I think the reason I am a teacher is because I was instilled with a love of reading and words at a very young age. It just seemed like the logical thing to do as I got older and was asked that horrible question.... "what do you want to be when you grow up". Although it is only my second year teaching, I can't imagine anywhere else I rather be, especially in my urban school where I can share my love of literature with students that might not have had the role models I had at home and school.

My dad was a high school math teacher.  It was expected that I'd become a teacher.  I helped my piano teacher with lessons when she left for the summer during my high school years, but that was the extent of my interest. 

I was a rebellious child, and, because I'd always been told I'd be a teacher, I decided I'd like to be a music therapist.  Early marriage interferred with that dream, so I determined the next best thing was early childhood special education.  For my first three years in education, that is what I did and enjoyed it.  However, I like changes, so I moved into regular education...fifth grade.  Never would I have considered middle school, mainly because my experiences  in middle school were so horrendous.  Partly self-inflicted, but mostly, incredibly non-involved teachers. 

As luck would have it, I divorced and later remarried a man from a different city.  Eventually, after teaching 5th-12th ESL, an eighth grade English Language Arts position opened.  My first day in that classroom was truly as if I'd finally come home. 

I understand the students; I love teaching ELA; and I love the middle school atmosphere.  I can't imagine doing anything else!

I knew from the age of seven that I would become a teacher one day. It truly was a calling for me. Subject-wise, I changed my mind frequently until my senior year of high school. My English teacher that year had a profound impact on me, and while she was not the first to do so, it was her influence that steered me towards English. I am now in my third year of teaching, two in middle school, and my first in high school. It is a struggle, I won't lie, but it is certainly rewarding.

I can honestly say that I don't teach for the money, and I certainly don't know who can!  I teach now because I was inspired by so many phenomenal teachers through the years.  I always wanted to teach.  I remember being a little girl and being so excited over "real" progress reports to play school with and I know in my heart that one of my friends even had an overhead projector!  I can remember verbatim some of the lessons I learned from various top notch teachers through the years.  I hope one day one of my students will feel the same way about me!!

As fr back as I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher.    I played school all the time and at every stage of my schooling I wanted to be a teacher within that level (i.e. in elementary school I wanted to be an elementary teacher).  Well, I eventually found that I loved history and wanted to be a history teacher.  Then somethine happened.  I met my Junior year English teacher who took an interest in my writing.  She assigned us a creative writing task and she loved it.  For the rest of the year (and beyond) she would read my stories, provide some feedback, and give me hope as a writer.  I had always loved to read and write.  That same year, I read The Great Gatsby and fell in love with the novel and American literature.  I decided that teaching English was the avenue for me!  Plus, I have a love of classic film, old tiem radio, and so much more that was all truely inspired by different English teachers.  They are the people who really helped me decide the road to take on the journey to becoming a teacher. 

Let's not forget, too, that I am an idealist and optimist; I wanted to change the world.  Also, I think through teaching and writing we can come as close to being an immortal as we ever will!

My mom always told me I would become a librarian because I spent so much time there reading -- I thought briefly about it, but it wasn't really calling me.  In my freshman composition class in college, my professor told me I was an okay writer but that I was better at helping others improve their essays.  She hired me as a writing tutor and that's what got me started in taking more writing classes.  I was detoured from the lit classes to the linguistics classes by a cute boy who dropped out of college as soon as I declared my major, but I learned that I actually liked linguistics.  After doing a project at a local school on language acquisition in children, I decided to become a teacher.

When I was a junior in high school, I had an amazing English teacher named Mr. Rusk. I enjoyed going to his class every day because, unlike most of my classes, I felt like I was actually learning something.

We read "Brave New World" in his class, and our discussions changed my life. It made me reflect about who I was and who I wanted to be and the impression I'm leaving on the world. Mr. Rusk told us that if we only listen to what our parents and teachers tell us and never question anything, our minds are locked in a box. We are not really living, just going through the motions like the people in the book. He encouraged us to ask questions about EVERYTHING, to "unlock" our minds and start to live. This is a motto I still live by today.

Being in that classroom made me want to be an English teacher. I don't think there is another job out there where you can have such an affect on someone's life. I hope that one day I will change a student the way Mr. Rusk changed me. 

I come from a line line of dedicated teachers, which made my rebellious teenaged self swear never to be caught dead at the front of a classroom.  I fell into an English degree because I had a college advisor who let me take whatever I was interested in instead of what was required (dangerous!). In college, I was challenged and intimidated by a few professors to think outside the box, and I loved it. I wanted to be like these people. I feel it is my calling, my vocation, to reach out to teenagers and show them the path.

I was in first grade when I first decided I wanted to be a teacher. I can remember the image vividly in my mind. I was walking back from the playground on my grandparent's dirt road and I remember thinking to myself what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I knew right then and there that I wanted to teach. I love the classroom and always have. I love the way it makes me feel; new and creative, sophisticated, but also humbled. I love it when I see students who have struggled over the semester, answer a question right in class or offer a valuable critique on what we are learning. It is the greatest job in the world!

I became a teacher because that is what I was born to do. It took me a long time, though. I had two kids and finished my undergraduate degree and then added another child right before I received my Master's. It made it challenging! Teaching is my passion. I have changed my ways over the years. However, the most important aspect to anything that I teach (English and history and sociology and Comparative World Religions) is that the learning is what is important. We do have to come down to "how many points is this worth" and "is this going to be on the final" but at the end of the day I'd like my students to have learned something of value. My goal: one student out of the 175 to say "wow, that's cool" and then I've had a good year. My methods are often unconventional and I do have a hard time following all the rigid rules. My son (I did add two more kids after I started teaching) wonders why I teach when he'd rather I have a more prosperous career and I have to say that I love teaching. I love going to work each day. I know that something unexpected is going to happen. And some days, I dance.