My Why: The Purpose
Everyone deserves access to opportunities that nurture the deeply intrinsic human desire to make the most out of life by learning and growing daily through experiences as individuals in a global community.
My How: The Process
Supporting students to become the better people they desire to be by pouring into them the love, encouragement, support, and feedback that has been poured into me comes from teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics.
My What: The Result
Students will learn connections between mathematics and the characteristics that set them apart to be positive contributing adult members of society with more opportunities to continue learning and growing in college, career, and/or military.
Education and learning has been my safe space for as long as I can remember. While my parents provided me the foundation for Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, including the physiological and safety needs, it was through my friends and teachers in school that I progressed towards self-actualization from belongingness, love needs, and esteem needs (The School of Life, 2019). I have had the deficiency needs met almost daily and the growth needs fulfilled almost daily as well in some capacity (Hierarchy of Needs, n.d.). I also recognize that I come from privilege and I have been called to use my privilege to provide others opportunity to move from the deficiency needs to growth needs. For most teachers, we get a group of students for only one academic school year while they sit in our classrooms as students on an official roster. We also recognize that our students become a part of our hearts forever, even after they leave for the summer, graduate from high school, and move into adult life as a college student, career person, or military personnel. Because we are invested in their livelihoods as well as academic content, we cannot just spend time focusing only on the subject knowledge. Students who buy into your classroom are the ones who know why we do what we do - we care about their well-being and their future. Our actions of what and how we operate in our classrooms, lessons, and interactions are rooted in this belief in them. We urgently need to meet students where they are at in their hearts first to create deep, meaningful impact on their lives because they deserve the opportunity for someone to invest in them and this very well may be the only chance. We cannot assume students have this in their lives yet through parents, coaches, or other teachers. We could literally be the teacher in their life that they reflect back on and see a monumental shift in their future. We can know that students need this but feel like it is too much work. It is just like, you can know you are smart but feel dumb. You can know you are beautiful but feel ugly. You can know you are valuable but feel worthless. Just because I know something to be true doesn't necessarily change how I feel 100% of the time. This reconciliation of heart versus mind is something I personally struggle with in certain capacities in my life, but part of my personal decision and intrinsic motivation in moving towards change is that I have been able to convince my heart and rely on my past experiences to acknowledge the disconnect between logic and feeling and keep moving towards a goal. It makes me consider all the times when I have tried to build relationships with challenging students. Daily battles, feeling like I did not matter to that child and nothing I could do would change that, did not stop me from continuing to try because I knew that at some point, whether in my classroom or not, they would have an opportunity to reflect back and know that I cared deeply about them as a student and a person. I know this to be true because I have had a student or two who would, at the end of the year, express their appreciation for my role in their education and life. In contrast, there are students who have also expressed their elation for never having to step foot in my class again... but those moments of clarity and reflection from the positive provide me memories and reminders that even when the head doesn't agree with the heart, keep moving until they do. Rather than asking why, we should ask why not now? Tomorrow may be too late and yesterday did not have this opportunity. Today is it.
References
Cassie . (2021, December 21). 23 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers to Lift You Up When You’re Down. Teach Starter. https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/10-inspirational-quotes-teachers-us/
Hierarchy of Needs. (n.d.). Www.wichita.edu. https://www.wichita.edu/services/mrc/OIR/Pedagogy/Theories/maslow.php#:~:text=Maslow The School of Life. (2019). Why Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Matters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0PKWTta7lU Jr, M. (2017). Know Your Why | Michael Jr. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytFB8TrkTo
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My husband lovingly teases me when I reflect on my day with him and say "I learned something new today!" because he would be surprised if I didn't learn something new.
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