Why Teach? part 2

So, why do I teach? That answer to that question has so many parts I could never completely answer it. The starting point is indeed my childhood, where I grew up as a Teacher's Kid. My mother taught elementary school. In fact, she initially taught in the elementary school I went to. The thing was, the school was a small one, only thirteen classrooms when I started there, one of which housed the library. Everyone in the school knew who my mother was. That could have been problematic, and probably was for my younger sister, but it didn't seem to be for me. Perhaps because my graduation year was the only cohort of students my mother did NOT teach in her thirty-five year teaching career. As I moved from second grade to third, my mother switched from teaching third grade to second, thereby missing my class completely.

Even so, I loved school. I could read, write and learn new things. One day, I found some of my mother's extra teacher books and some student editions in the basement. I started reading through the teacher editions and started teaching my own lessons. My parents got me a chalkboard and we set up some desks like a classroom. My dolls found their way into the seats and I started "teaching" them. My friends thought I was somewhat crazy, wanting to "play school" even in the summer.

So, for me teaching has been a lifelong adventure. Getting to where I am today, teaching high school science, was not a short and easy path, however. In high school in the late-1970s, when many students were considering options for college, I was outright told by my parents that being a teacher would not be an option for me if I wanted the money to go to college. My mother faced losing her job each year, despite being tenured, due to budgetary issues. This is indeed where many teachers find themselves today in our foundering economy. I am worried about this choice I made twelve years ago, but have learned to "let go and let God." It would take that time to find my way to the classroom. My first teaching mentor was my mother, who gave me advice as I began substitute teaching and helped me find good training programs. She guided me through the process of getting my certification, provided introductions to school district personnel, even helped me arrange my student teaching experience.

My mom passed away in 1999, after a year-long battle with adenocarcinoma (a form of cancer). During the last six months of her life, she struggled to maintain clear thinking as she began liver failure. She was forced to retire, spending the second semester of her final year of employment on sick leave, using every available sick day and borrowing three days donated by some of her colleagues. One of her last truly lucid statements to me was an apology for not allowing me to become a teacher when I was younger. She had watched me get halfway through my teacher training, but would not live to see me get my certification. I was one month into my student teaching in the elementary school where she had taught for thirty years when she passed away. My cooperating teacher was been someone she had mentored as a new teacher nearly twenty years before.

Why do I teach? It's a calling, one I received many, many years ago. No matter how I tried to find my niche elsewhere, I kept coming back to it. I'm a Teacher's Kid and, yes, I am following in her footsteps, after a fashion. I feel connected to her when I am in the classroom. Yet, I am at peace as well. What does teaching do for me? It gives me a happiness and fills me with joy (most days, anyway) that only God can provide. He's the one who put the need to teach in me. My mother just showed me the way. How does that peace, happiness and joy manifest itself? What does it do? Why have I been called to this? That's for next time...

Why Teach?

Recently, I added myself to Facebook. As I reconnect to friends whom I lost track of long ago, I find myself forced to once again answer a question I get from people familiar with only some of my background...Why do you teach high school? I heard it often in the many job interviews that eventually led to my current position. That question leads me to reflect on the many related questions that usually follow it up... (1) You have so much education. Why are you teaching instead of researching? (2) Why teach high school instead of college? (3) Why do you teach "those kids"? (4) I know, it's because of your Mom, isn't it? (5) Couldn't you get a better job? (6) Why teaching? (7) How do you put up with all of "it"? (8) Why...? And the list goes on, and on, AND ON...

Here's what I've come to understand... For many of us, our career is just that, a job that pays the bills. We don't really see the many fruits of our labors at all, beyond the paycheck and outward, worldly examples of "success." Few of us see our careers as a calling. Oh, sure, pastors, preachers, priests, nuns, missionaries, and the like speak of what they do as "A Calling". How many of the rest of us do, really? Do we see it that way, or simply use the term? Well, I do see it that way, and this week I am going to reflect on the reasons for that viewpoint. It's part of the Journey of Faith that I am traveling. I hope to answer some of those many questions about why I teach as well.

The Power of Technology

Wow! I never realized how powerful these social networking sites can be. Or at least I didn't realize how much I could do with one of them. Since I joined Facebook yesterday, I have discovered more friends I have not communicated with in over a decade than I realized I had. I've spent much of my free time in the last 24 hours just responding to comments and inquiries from these people! It's addicting! Now, I understand how my students get so involved with them.

Communication is so important today. And with our lives so busy much of the time, it becomes difficult to keep up with those who have passed through and moved on. I am learning how something like Facebook can provide us with the opportunity to quickly catch up and then keep up with people. I also understand how it can be used negatively, and that makes me question if, as a parent, I should allow my own children to use it. It is also what has kept me from attempting to use it myself.

However, being informed is half the battle. As a high school teacher, it is in my interest to learn what my students are doing, not just in the classroom, but outside of it as well. It allows for a connection. While I would not want most of them discovering what I have out there, if I know from experience what they are doing, I can try to tie in my teaching to it. This is classic teaching strategy and "best practices". We are told to "make it relevant, make it real." Chemistry is tough to do that with most of the time, but if I can draw analogies from what is "real" to my students and connect with them that way, I know I will be more successful.

That's what started my foray into the social networking online arena. I have to admit, however, that it's becoming fun to find who I can out there and catch up. The journeys of our lives, the choices we make, affect not only where we are but who we are. It's important to keep up with what we can to remind ourselves of where we have been. I now look forward to keeping up. We don't want to forget the journey that leads us where the Lord will have us go. The technology I am quickly learning to navigate could help me find my way a bit less stressfully.

The End of Another School Year

Ever wonder what these young people find so useful about these networking sites? Well, on the advice of some colleagues, I decided to set up some pages of my own. Hence this new blog, a twitter page and a page on Facebook. It's amazing what you can do with these things. I have found people I had long tried to locate, but couldn't because as past computers crashed, taking my electronic address books with them I lost contact. Also, I am learning to be less afraid of such services. I've always considered who I am to be my own business, but watching colleagues looking for work this year, and learning that having your "own" page can get you places (or prevent you from getting there), I realized that it's important to monitor what's out there. I like to write, but get nervous about what I put on the word processor or on paper. So, this may be an easier way to get what I want to say out there, as I said on my last post. So, here comes some stream of consciousness thoughts....

Recently, the pastor of our church challenged us to be "BRIDGEs" to bring those far from God to God. I realize this is an important part of our commissions as Christians, but the problems inherent in following through on this at my job as a teacher in a Public School can cost me not only my current job, but my career as well. If this is what God wants of me, I can do it, but I think I need to find a different venue to get the message out there than my workplace, which is bound by that sometimes ill-conceived concept of "Separation of Church and State" which the Constitution supposedly insists upon. As an individual, I am protected by Freedom of Speech AND Freedom of Religion, except when I am at my public school job. Of course, no one bothers to read that part of the Amendment in the Bill of Rights that says the government can't tell you what to believe as far as your religion (or lack of it) goes. It says nothing about whether I can talk about what I believe. Nonetheless, we have become so obsessed with "not offending anyone" that we are afraid to say anything in case we accidentally cross the line between being an individual and being "a part of the government". This is the catch-22 in which I as a teacher find myself. I feel God pressuring me to talk about my faith with others, yet I need the job and the paycheck it provides to feed my family. When many of my friends are already believers, it becomes a challenge to reach out to those our pastor refers to as "that kid", since there are few of those in my acquaintance.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that those students I teach should make decisions on what they believe ON THEIR OWN. I even developed a short course on how to use critical thinking skills to make those decisions. I also believe that my personal views should not be part of what I teach, unlike so many of my colleagues who allow their political persuasions to impact what they tell their students. I guess that's why I teach science, rather than social studies or literature or some other topic. The purpose for public education should be to produce adults who are literate, productive and able to think for themselves. Too often I see students who are none of those things, yet we are preparing to let them loose on the world. One thing I try to avoid is controversy over topics that have long been red-flags in my mind as those that can get me into trouble down the road. I like what I do, but bite my tongue more often than not on those topics I disagree with. I'd rather my students look at evidence from all sides and decide what makes sense for them to believe, support or act upon. Independent thinkers created this great country, built the millions of inventions we have created, and led us to this point in history. I can only wish what I see in my students that I have tried to impart, beyond the sciences of chemistry, biology or physics, will stick with them. Maybe I'll catch up with a few on these networking pages and find out what impact I had down the road.

As the description says, you never know what might come out. This may seem too "all over the place" but that's where I am at today. Maybe I'll expand on some of these things as the summer goes on. It's a great time to reflect for us educators.

Welcome

Well, it's been a couple of years since I tried this, but thought I'd give it another go. The years since I tried putting my first blogs online have changed me dramatically, and I was thinking, maybe I should try just writing about life as it goes. So, here's to the beginning of a new journey. I hope to talk about teaching, parenting, life in New York State (yes, there is more to New York than "The City"!), and just whatever comes to mind on a given day. I keep getting caught up in stuff that just screams for commentary so be prepared...you never know what you might see!