Why I Became a Teacher

While on the Oklahoma Education Sunday night Twitter feed, I was challenged to blog about why I became a teacher. If you don't already read the Sunday night tweets, you're missing out! #oklaed Sunday nights at 8:00 central.

I became a teacher because it is what I have always wanted to do. Seriously. My mom says I wanted to be a teacher before I even attended school. How I knew what school was all about, I'm not sure. What is funny, is I didn't always enjoy school much. I don't think it was actually going to school, but I didn't enjoy being a student. I always wanted to be at the front of the room teaching the class, not attending.

As a little girl, I would practice being a teacher every day. I saved up my allowance to go to the teacher store. I would buy workbooks, grading pens, grade books, pointer, etc. I had a chalkboard and whiteboard hanging in my room to teach from. I would line up my dolls and make them do worksheets. I recruited my neighbors to be my students. I am even guilty of giving a never-ending spelling test that my mom stopped me mid-test because I was on number one hundred something. (I was a little bossy as well.) Every time my friends came over we had to play school. I was a bit obsessed.

When I got to go to school, I loved my teachers. I idolized each and every one of them. I had great teachers growing up, which only fueled my passion to become a teacher. They would save their extra copies so I could take them home. I loved that! I try to keep that in mind as I teach today. Kids need to see that teaching is fun and many of them do want to become teachers some day. I am afraid that the low pay and increased pressures put on teachers is squelching the younger generation from dreaming that same teacher dream that I did. I want to continue to encourage young people to get into teaching. I truly love it, despite those negative parts!

In college, I started by majoring in business, because of those obvious drawbacks in teaching. I looked at my class list and nearly cried. How boring the next four years of my life would be. My boyfriend at the time, husband now, said, "Are you sure you don't want to be a teacher?" I knew immediately I needed to change my major! I went the next week and changed it all over... looking at that class list made me giddy with excitement. I got to take classes that taught me to be a teacher? Heck yes!

The rest is history... I continue to love teaching. I love it so much it consumes my life often. I am always thinking, jotting down ideas, Pinteresting, reading blogs, etc. to try to keep things exciting and fresh in my classroom.