Proud to be a Teacher pt.2

Growing up I didn't always *dream* of being a teacher. In fact all I can ever remember wanting to be was an artist. Well, I can color.....and that's about all! So when the whole artist idea didn't pan out I decided I would go to college. What for? Well, I applied to UMaine as a business student. Why?? I have no idea! Before I enrolled in classes I looked into Environmental Science. I took a class in High School that inspired that and decided it was a good idea. Took some classes and when the 2nd semester rolled around I found myself enrolled in a class from hell: chemistry! Man, do I HATE chemistry!!! So that triggered me to switch BACK to Business. I still am not sure why. Economics as it turns out is JUST as bad as chemistry. Who knew? So what did I do??? Switched to communications. Everyone else was doing it, so why not me?? After a semester of THOSE classes, I was doing some soul searching....and spending LOTS of time with my brand-new niece and as much time as I could with my brand-new twin nephews. The more I thought about kids the more it seemed like the right choice for me. I couldn't think of any reasons NOT to major in Elementary Education, so I did it. It took a lot of work.....see how many semesters I wasted in the meantime?!?! I caught up by taking summer courses and a packed schedule and I was even placed as a junior with incoming freshmen in some classes. But in the end I graduated with my Elementary Degree.

So that brings me to today. I've been teaching for 6 years...and loving it each and every year. I have had a rough 8 months this year but they say every once and awhile you get a "rough" group and then the next year is even better. Here's hoping! But even in this rough patch I can find light in some of my students....there's always a few to keep me going and trying MY best. Many times it's the strugglers who keep me on my toes. They are reading SO low (say 1st grade level in 4th grade) and just treading water to keep up. But these kids who keep treading, with a smile on their face no less, are the ones I remember!

Then there's the kids who say the funniest things.... without realizing it. A couple years ago I had a girl who told me she wanted to be a Vegetarian when she grew up. I thought she meant a Veterinarian, but she assured me that I was wrong.

I had another student this year tell me a "food chain" (think science term) was a place like McDonald's.

Then just yesterday a boy told me that he had something sticky in his pocket....and it wasn't the jelly beans he had in there. (Why on earth did he have jelly beans in his pocket of all places?!)

These are the things that keep me going during these rough times. The kids are WHY I'm a teacher and I am thankful for all the lessons they teach me- without even knowing it. They make me appreciate having parents who care about me and love me unconditionally and gave me their full attention for as long as I need(ed) it. I am so thankful to have come from a FAMILY who is close and caring and supportive. I am so thankful that I grew up in a HOUSE not in a car or from apartment to apartment. I am thankful for running water and electricity and having food on my table every night. Things are changing in our world and I'm seeing it everyday in my classroom.

The rough times are not nearly over, but try to find a little light in it all.

Proud to be a Teacher

I was just reading this article from the St. Petersburg Times and it's making me reflect....

to be continued.

April 7, 2011

• No profession more noble
• By Susan Straight, Los Angeles Times
• At a time when teachers and their unions are under fire across the nation, my eldest daughter just had a much-anticipated interview with Teach for America. She will graduate from college in May and hopes to be a teacher in the fall.
• She was worried that I'd be disappointed she didn't feel a desire for graduate school.
• But I was thrilled. Since graduating from college in 1984, I've taught GED courses, English as a second language, composition at a city college and now writing and literature at a public university. I have loved every year, and I don't think there's a more important profession.
• Think about it: We aren't legally mandated to spend as much time with any other kind of person as we are with teachers. An American who graduates from high school has been taught by more than 20 teachers and has spent more than 10,000 hours in their company. It's no wonder almost everyone has a story about a teacher who changed his or her life.
• Still, with all the contempt and anger being hurled at teachers right now, it's alarming to be sending a daughter into the crossfire, especially when new teachers are the first to be threatened with pink slips.
• The growing scorn for public school teachers is at every level of education. Teachers are blamed for bad test results, for disrespectful students, for failing schools. They are thought to be lazy, draining public coffers with their monthly salaries and pension benefits (although they actually contribute to their pensions like everyone else). I've been told by parents of students who attend private religious schools that public schools are beyond redemption, and they resent their tax dollars subsidizing poor-quality education.
• Meanwhile, parents often consider their kids' teachers as mere service providers. One of my best friends, a second-grade teacher at the public elementary school I attended, told me about a student who consistently returns math work undone. "I don't do math," he said. "My mom says I don't have to."
• A teacher at my youngest daughter's public high school told me parents often call and e-mail to protest assignments. My child just "isn't feeling Dickens," one said. "He needs to be reading something he can relate to."
• At the very moment my daughter hopes to become a teacher, Detroit is talking about closing half of its public schools. All over the world, people sacrifice to send their children to school. Afghan girls are threatened yet still walk to school; Chinese children are sent to schools in faraway cities by parents desperate to give them better lives; Kenyan students study by kerosene lamp in one-room schools built by grateful parents.
• Here, access to a free education is an essential part of the American dream. I was sent to kindergarten at 4 by my mother, a Swiss immigrant. She taught me to read when I was 3, worried that the school wouldn't admit me unless I was already literate. I went daily to a kind teacher who let me read advanced books in the corner. I remember her hair, her lips when her mouth moved, and her fingernails. Decades later, she remembers me, and says I told her stories.
• I believe it. Because teachers are often therapists, friends, mentors, coaches, sometimes providers of food and school supplies or holders of secrets. And in that way, they are some of the most important people in children's lives.
• And sometimes, despite all the disrespect that's out there, teachers are appreciated. Last week, I got an e-mail from a Cambodian-American student from San Bernardino, Calif., who now teaches English in South Korea; she was writing to say thank you.
• My students, many of them first-generation immigrants, have brought me gifts and invited me to their weddings and New Year celebrations. I have gotten calls of thanks from their parents. And sometimes they have called me not by my name, but by the most reverent word they could summon: teacher.
• I try to imagine my daughter in a classroom this fall, looking out at the faces of children who are thinking of numbers and letters and secrets. I remember the woman who taught me to form the alphabet, the man who taught me long division. I remember my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Wolf, playing Cat Stevens songs on the guitar. And I wonder about the children who may one day remember my daughter's teaching, and in what ways she may have changed their lives.
• Susan Straight's new novel, "Take One Candle Light a Room," is about an orphaned young man whose life is changed by teachers.
• © 2011 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
• 
  

what CAN'T you do with a banana?

When I was growing up I hated (i know that's a strong word) bananas. The texture of them grossed me OUT! I even had this banana-flavored chap stick--EW! For some reason my palate must've matured when I went to college. One day I decided I would try out a banana and- can you believe it- I liked it! So immediately I called my mom and told her the news. It was one of those "firsts".... 1st step, 1st pee on the potty, 1st taste of a banana.

So yesterday I was searching on blogs for yummy things to make and I came upon some banana pancakes. http://annies-eats.net/2010/08/18/banana-pancakes/ Now that I have a mature palate, I figured it was time to test them out! Can you say, YUM?! I was wishing I had some fresh strawberries to put on them but Adam and Bob wouldn't run to the farm stand..... so I used blueberry syrup instead. MAN, they were good! The recipe says to use a small banana but I used a large one and there was just enough banana flavor. I thought they were very filling but worth it.

This was some thick batter.....

The BEST blueberry syrup. Ever.

Yum Yum! Had to make a little guy so I could make sure they were good!

That's 1 stack of deliciousness!

The final product, so good!