Teaching

I've been thinking about teaching for awhile now.  Although my ultimate goal has been to teach Secondary English, now that I am in the Certification program at Providence College, my dream is becoming a reality.

Or should I say nightmare?

Wait, back up!  Nightmare?  Don't get me wrong, I am excited when I think of having my own classroom, planning lessons, opening the world of literature to teens.  And then I sit in my classes, and my head feels like it is being squeezed in a vise!  This is not going to be easy by ay means!  And true, nothing worthwhile ever is; but the amount of work that goes into becoming certified, and then planning lessons, reaching out to kids who don't want to be there, reaching out to kids who might be bored, well quite frankly it is overwhelming!  And I have found myself thinking of teachers I have been lucky enough to have had the pleasure of sitting in their classroom.

Miss Brown, fifth grade Hope Elementary.  She honestly originally sparked my interest in writing and told me I had a talent for it.  She made class exciting, and even wrote to me, (back int he days before emails) after I was her student.  So the question is-did she ever sleep?  How did she have the time?

Mrs. Mumford, Scituate High School, by far one of my all time favorite teachers.  Mrs. Mumford taught English, and I had her twice.  Honestly if I can be half the teacher she was, I'll be doing fabulous.  She made Shakespeare come alive for us, introduced public speaking so we didn't pass out, went to the plays to support us, taught us how to write papers.  How?  How did she find the time to make class exciting, and give us each that personal touch she was so great at doing?

Mr. Kane, my chorus teacher all through high school.  Another fabulous teacher, who kept his music selections fun, while being educational.  Who would plan something special every year.  Who never treated us like we were children, which of course we were.


One of my classes has asked us to reflect on some of our favorite teachers and think of what made them so great.  What I want to ask them is how were they so great, while managing a life?  Teachers very often get a bad rap in society, and I think if people just saw a tenth of what a teacher has to do in order to get the positions they have, they might not be so quick to blame the teachers.