I am a Teacher! See me Hug!

A few months ago when my husband lost his job, I had to up the ante on my job search.  How do you do that?  For me, it meant that I would have to cross our state line.  That wasn't too hard to do because I can just about throw a rock into Tennessee from Georgia from where I stand now.  The first school I interviewed at is an urban school in Chattanooga.  A few days after my interview I got the call that they wanted me.  I can not even tell you how excited I am, not because I simply have a job but because of the kids.   I get to teach kids!

In 1998 when this "Family Circus" cartoon was published, I was starting my junior year as an undergraduate in college, working towards my degree in early childhood education (ECE).  I clipped this out of our paper and it has hung on every wall of ever school I have taught in (think it's time for lamination).  When I was not teaching it was neatly filed away with my teaching certificate...it was that important to me.  In my opinion, Bil Keane is amazing for putting this one out there.

Since I've gone back to graduate school, I have been introduced to many modern day educational theorist and some really good books on education.  My all time favorite is Nel Noddings.  One word describes her theories on education.  CARING

The last few nights I have dreamed about my last teaching position.  I dream about my old classrooms, the people I worked with and introducing them to my family but the children are gone.  They have moved on.  It has been 10 years, those boys and girls are juniors in high school and I PRAY they are all doing well.  Lately, I do think a great deal about the children that I was responsible.  They were so sweet and loving, some for good homes and some who didn't know what home was.  They needed hugs, all of them. 

I was once asked, "I can tell you are going to be a caring teacher but, do you know how to design a class management plan and assessments?"  Of course, that is the part that is the hardest to me sometimes but from the perspective of a mom; I'd rather have a teacher that was great at caring about my child any day, than one who could design a really good test.  The best teachers on record are the ones that care about their students first.