An Ode To Teaching

I am a teacher. Other people define themselves as people first and profession second, but I can’t. At core, teaching is what I live for. I am a teacher. 

From the time I was small, entertaining my brothers so my parents and older sister could have a break, I knew no other path but acting and teaching. When my siblings were not available I created university sized classrooms in my mind and taught intricate lessons to my imaginary audience. As I grew I grabbed every chance to teach or counselor, teaching my classmates information before a test. You name it; if it was available and gave me a chance to hone my craft, I did it. I even went to a few classes at Community College of Philadelphia to try my hand at interpreting for the deaf and use my dramatic flair to its fullest using a different modality, but ended up right back in the classroom, where my inner actor gets to act on a stage of my own making. .. and it’s been 26 wonderful years in the classroom so far!

Now I am coaching and mentoring full time- but I am still in classrooms, teaching different classes every day, modeling lessons, brainstorming with teachers.

“You make it look so easy!” I hear again and again.

It is.

Really.

When you boil it all down to its most common denominator, it really is easy.

I keep hearing talented future job seekers lament that teaching is too hard, classroom management is too difficult and they are looking elsewhere for their careers and I wonder, “Who will teach if no on embraces teaching anymore?”

For years, I taught third grade during the school year and ran camps in the summer. When I got the call to teach 7th and 8th grade social studies, I gulped. The fact that I knew barely any history and never taught social studies didn’t faze me. The fact that it was two weeks before school and the school sounded desperate was right up my alley. My concern? The boys would all be taller than I am, I realized.

Walking into the classroom was frightening; I actually felt the butterflies in my stomach and could name each one if I had to. I did not feel like the veteran teacher I was.

Five minutes later I was in control- and have never looked back.

After that, I found myself teaching 5th grade boys, and then working with agencies that send me into K-12 classes to model lessons in front of students I had no relationship with. I can now walk into  any school and any class of students, model a lesson for their teacher, and engage the class- usually with minimal effort.

I am not superhuman. I am a teacher.

My secret? 

If I had to summarize it, I would have to say- it’s that, in the end, all children are people. All people are hard-wired to behave in predictable ways at predictable times. And all children, no matter what age, respond when they are dealt with fairly, with caring and authenticity.

Are you a teacher? What's your secret?