Sunday, June 22, 2014

Preparing to Take One Step at a Time

I would also like to share with you about my journey of teaching so far. Ever since I was young, teaching has always been something I wanted to do “when I grew up.” In elementary school, I have memories of certain teachers who made school fun, and I wanted to be the teacher who could do that for students. In sixth grade, I was told that what I wanted to be now (which was a teacher) was not what I was actually going to be. My stubborn self showed them! Then entering ninth grade, I told my guidance counselor that I was going to Calvin and that I was going to be a teacher. Granted, throughout this time other occupations came into thought, but teaching always stuck around. I had this mentality until my senior year of college. For a solid eight years, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Then during student teaching of my senior year fall semester, my thoughts about teaching drastically changed. I did not want to be a teacher anymore. This was the hardest idea for me to consider. What was my life going to look like? I just spent three and a half years pursuing this and now this work and time spent seemed useless. Throughout my entire student teaching semester, I wrote journals titled “Do I Really Want to Teach?” I never thought I would ask myself this question, but I did. I went from being dead set on only teaching at a Christian high school to being open to working at a public school, a home school co-op, or a tutoring center. I received advice from my sister-in-law and a friend to pursue classroom teaching because having your own classroom is worlds different than student teaching in someone else’s classroom. Although student teaching was not the best experience, God used this discouraging time to place me exactly where I am today. I thought I would be at a private Christian school, but, instead, I am teaching at an inner-city public school.

I know that the first year will be hard. I know that the second year will be hard. I’ve been told that teaching will get easier. So all I have to do is take one step at a time. I know that during my first year I will need a lot of prayer and encouragement. So please pray with me and for me as I prepare to take one step at a time. Right now I am looking for a place to live and hopefully a roommate as well. I am also setting up my classroom and doing a little bit of lesson planning.

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