Being Miss P

I love being a teacher and I love the students I work with.  Yesterday, I had stayed a bit late catching up on some paperwork and while I was leaving, the tennis team was practicing and from the court I heard "Hey Miss P!  Have a great night!".  The kicker is that the student isn't even in any of my classes or on my robotics team.  She is interested in being in my program for next year but I haven't really worked with her at all. 

Recently, there were two new students that moved to my school from another school in the district and there has been some tough transitions for them as being new in a high school is tough. One of the first days, one of the students came into my classroom and sat down and told me that she was not going to do anything that I asked her to do. She would throw fits every time I would tell her that either she did the work or she gets a zero for the day AND I call home to Mom.  Being consistent can be hard because there are some days you just want to say... "Fine! Have it your way! UGH", but being consistent is the only way to make things work as a teacher.  Now, every time I am out for a conference or have a meeting and am not in school for whatever reason, I get an e-mail from her telling me that she misses me and she wishes I was back.  This melts my heart a bit as you can imagine and I always try to make sure I celebrate the 'small stuff' because that is what teaching is all about.  Don't get me wrong, this does NOT happen all the time and, most students enjoy the 'vacation' of having me be out of school every once in a while for a conference, but it makes me so happy to know that my class is important to some of my students.

There are moments that make me want to pull my hair out, but those are far less frequent than the moments that make me exhale pure happiness when I realize how lucky I am to be doing what I love so very much.  I wonder how I got so lucky to be where I am.  I know that I have worked really hard, but so many people who have also worked hard are not nearly as happy as I am with my career choice.  What this all made me realize is that, I really love being Miss P.

My philosophy on teaching.

Education is more than what happens in a school, it happens everywhere and as a teacher, it is my job to filter and direct the appropriate information in the right order to each individual student.  Teaching is like being an air traffic controller at LAX, there are some things that stay the same day to day, but mostly, everything is different. You never know where your students are coming from and what happened right before they got to your classroom, but it is your job to make sure they safely arrive at their educational destination.  Recognizing that there is a difference between students within a mainstream classroom, those who have special needs and those who are gifted, each student gets the same thrill out of solving a new problem for the first time or finally grasping a difficult concept, and I believe that it is my job to ensure that every student is given the tools and support to receive that thrill of learning. I teach to ensure that all students get to enjoy learning something new.  

I never ‘learned’ like other students in my class, I was always too busy chatting or being distracted because sitting still in a class was incredibly boring and for me it never helped me learn.  I am much more of a ‘movement’ type of person and being told to sit and write down facts and figures or copy over spelling words ten times, never seemed like a great use of my time.  As a teacher, I think it is important to include students in the style of their learning.  Making sure it is not just sitting or listening.  In my class we build things, we create the posters that go up on the wall, we discuss how the topics we learn about could impact and help us in the future and in the real world.

Classroom management is very important in my room, there is a very consistent structure; each day as the students walk in, they grab their sign in sheet, go to their desk and write the class agenda down so they are all aware of the topics to be covered in class. There is also a journal topic or quote of the day for them to write down and respond to, this topic usually aligns closely to the agenda and this allows the students to get into the mode for the class.  I have had great success with this and know it works because my students show up every day and our conversations grow and their opinions change through the year based on the topics we cover.

The main facet of my teaching style, is that I am never afraid to look silly, there is nothing short of singing and dancing in my class to try to drive points home.  There is always music in my classroom as well as student made wall decor.  I believe that students need constant reminders of what they can do and where they want to be.  In my room I have a board that changes each quarter, the students write their dreams, inspirational quotes, goals or any positive things that have happened in their life.  This allows students to take ownership of the classroom while having a constant visual reminder of what they want out of life.  Teaching is not a career but a life choice. When I tell people that I am a teacher, I am unsure that they understand that I am not just explaining what I do for my ‘day job’ but what I am from head to toe, inside and out.