{Thankful Tuesday} Thank a Teacher!

Today I’m inspired to talk about teaching. I taught 2nd and 3rd grade and tutored K-12 students who were learning English as their 2nd language. I didn’t last long in the public school system. It wasn’t because of the students, my co-teachers, administrators and parents. It was mainly because my inner beliefs didn’t align with the system. Teaching always has a place in my heart, and honestly, I do miss it at times.

During those two years of teaching, I grew in so many ways I never thought possible. I realized what I was meant to do in this world. One of which, is helping children and others see how great they are without testing materials. The reason I came to this conclusion is that I had 2nd and 3rd graders who were stressing out like adults do. A 2nd grader cried in my classroom because she was so scared of the BIG test that is given in March (and I can’t even tell you how many times I cried because of the fear of my students not passing). My heart ached for her and the others.

Over and over in my head I would think, this isn’t right! Seven and eight year olds should not be this stressed. They should love learning and be excited to go to school. All I could picture in my head was when these little students of mine finally reach adulthood, they’d probably be more stressed out than I am at 30 because of the pressure that starts way too early in schools.

In my opinion, not only are the students stressed, but the parents are, the teachers are, the administrators are…pretty much everyone is that are involved in education.

I have so much love and gratitude for all my co-teachers, teachers, new teachers and aspiring teachers. Everyday they walk into their classroom with the goal of helping their students in any way they can even when testing pressure looms over their head from the very first day they step back into the classroom after summer vacation. Teachers keep their heads up high, even when it can be difficult to do. I struggled with this many days while teaching, but I did everything I could to stay positive for my students.

Now that I have a child of my own, I’m constantly thinking about how I’m going to teach her to balance school and life and mainly how to deal with the pressures of the education system. My wish is for the system to finally move in a positive direction. Teachers to love every part of their job. Students to love going to school and feel safe to blossom their unique talents. And testing to NOT be the main predictor to how smart and knowledgable a student is and how well the teacher teaches and how great the school is.

I just learned of this movie today called Waiting For Superman. I encourage you to watch the trailer and see if it’s something you’d like to watch. I can’t wait until I get to see it. Watching the trailer gave me the chills and I know it’s a must see for me.