It would seem as if this would be an easy topic to answer, after all teachers generally go into teaching because there is some aspect of the profession that they love. For me, my love of teaching has been an evolution. There is the "what I selfishly LOVE about teaching" aka "All about Me" and where I have evolved in my love of teaching.
My selfish love of teaching has to do with my lifelong love and passion for performance, creativity, and learning. I am a born actress and since I can remember, I played teacher. I taught my dolls, cousins, younger siblings, Sunday school toddlers, preschoolers, elementary children, etc. I even taught at one of the American High Schools in Ecuador while I was in college. I only had a HS diploma (which I had gotten 3 years before) but in spite of my lack of credentials I was hired because teaching was such a natural process for me. So, on a daily basis, when I stand before that captive audience of kids and I can hold them spell bound with my acting, I simply LOVE teaching for the excitement that it provides to my life. I am a creative person. I am one of the dually "blessed" with a divergent brain that won't quit cranking ideas that I want to use in my classroom. However, I would never be able to implement them if it were not for the AWESOME people in my virtual PD, who have put those ideas in an organized fashion that makes sense. I also love learning new things, new ways of doing things, and growing as a learner, a person and a teacher. This is why #langchat and Google + groups are so awesome because I can literally learn something new every single day.
Even though all of these things are wonderful to have, for a number of years, they were in conflict with the reality of my students. Because, those precious children couldn't always meet the expectations of my wild imagination and they didn't always have my passion for learning. That frustrated me but I kept right on riding my high horse pulling along those who could keep up with my love and passion for teaching and learning.
That was the case until last year, when I got a Masters in Ed and found the #langchat group. I understood that there was a piece of my love which was missing and that was a love for my students - all of them. So, this year, I have worked and prayed hard so that I will love all of my kids. The thing is that I still love all of the things I mentioned before but now my focus in on the kids. The results so far have been amazing. After all... if I am a born performer, a creative teacher, and a lifelong learner but have no love, I am just a bunch of noisy maracas making a racket in the air.
Lol! Noisy maracas making a racket! I sure know how that feels. I love how you identified the selfish love of being a teacher - some of us really do love being up on stage, don't we? Great post, thanks for sharing!
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