We are exactly 6 days away from Thanksgiving break. We are looking a little haggard, tempers slightly shorter, peers more annoying, emails increasing, etc., etc., etc.
So this felt like a small relatively mindless task I could produce in moments, during the commercials of reruns of The Big Bang Theory.
I found that I turned the TV off and all my attention was on the reflection of my choice to be an educator. I wish this was a required essay for student teachers and then we could mail them back to them after they had been teaching for 5 years, then 10 , and 15years in the trenches. To see the changes in who we have become as the potters of the clay we mold. My response to "The Why" is as follows:
I am addicted. I
am driven by the moments when my young scientists arrive to a conclusion that
had previously been an enigma. I am motivated
to see the growth as their dendrites form pathways from trying new and
interesting things. I am fascinated by
the struggled and frustrated faces trying their best and busting through the
ceilings they create for themselves or have been placed upon them by others. I am infatuated with the failure of lessons
with the promise of a new idea waiting to be implemented. I am renewed by the sweet smiles of excitement
at the beginning of each bell. I am
addicted to falling in love with a new batch of scientists each year and
fostering a relationship that makes me tearful on the last day of school. I have been in a classroom for almost 2,000
school days and I have yet to break the addiction, I refuse to find sobriety in
a job that is less important than molding the minds of young people.
To my fellow educators I wish you a snow day, coffee in real coffee mugs, warm fireplaces, time with family, bellies full of home cooked meals, and homes filled with laughter this season.
Rest and rejuvenate your souls, minds, and bodies, our work is hardly over and the desks will be filled with promise and hope.
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