Why I Am Becoming a Teacher!

In fourth grade I was going through a million thoughts of what I wanted to become, but doesn't every kid? I wanted to be an author but specifically for history because in the 4th grade we had an assignment where we had to write our own book about different history events and guess what? Your girl got an 100/100 because I illustrated, colored, gave the best explanations, and I even got to put it up on our bookshelf in the classroom. I also wanted to be a meteorologist on the news because I knew what the weather was going to be like every day(without checking the weather app because I didn't have a phone), and my dad would always tell me I should be a weather woman. I also told myself that I wanted to be a professional singer because I thought that I could really sing, but the last career I thought of doing was becoming a teacher because I loved kids, and loved working with them and teaching them. In preschool my teacher took pictures of me playing ¨House¨ because that's where I was during free time in the little playhouse that was inside our classroom. I was always the mother with the baby, in the dress up clothes, playing with all my friends.

My senior year of high school I joined in a class called "Education Professions" This class gave me the opportunity to be able to teach around the school district, and get what it feels like to be a teacher. I loved having the experience to go out and be their ¨second¨ teacher inside the classroom, having the kids get so excited to see me makes becoming a teacher so much more worth it. I got the chance to be the cadet teacher in a kindergarten, and second grade classroom. I have absolutely loved it.

There was a teacher that really benefited my life and was a source of inspiration in my decision to pursue a career in education. Her name is Lory Flecker and she was my 7th grade Language Arts teacher. Miss. Flecker, was the exact definition of what a teacher should be. She helped me learn a lot about what I should do when I am teaching. Miss. Flecker made her students her number one priority. She called all of her students her "Baby Peanuts" and she was "Momma Peanut" to us. Miss. Flecker always made sure that her students had what they need, she never failed to make me smile or laugh when days were hard. She would always come up to my desk and say "Honey" in this little voice and it always made me smile. Another memory I have of her, is that we were writing essays and I had asked Miss. Flecker "How do you spell adrenaline?" and Miss. Flecker was so proud of me for using such a big word to describe how I felt. You were accepted in Miss. Flecker's class. You were loved. Miss. Flecker called me her adopted daughter. Miss. Flecker is the reason why I wanna become a teacher. I wanna impact students lives the way she impacted mine.

I want to become a teacher because every day our teachers devotes his or her life to education for reasons as individual to them as any other part of their identity. It isn’t about the money to me. I want to be able to improve the Quality of Education because the student drop out percentages are at alarming rates, and I want to be able to prepare them in elementary school enough to know that they should not consider dropping out as even an option.

Another reason why I want to become a teacher is to impact the education system. There is a lot of work to be done in the teaching world, but with the effort of thousands of dedicated teachers that will make the most difference in those kids lives. Helping just one student is worth it, but over a long and effective career, I have the chance to help thousands of students. I want to change the lives of the students. I want to be more than just an educator: I want to be their mentor, confidant and a friend and help the students along this path and to play a part in shaping the person they will ultimately become, and encourage them and help them realize their potential. "Becoming a teacher lets you partake in life lessons that they will never forget and puts you in a position to influence their decisions, behaviors, strengths, weaknesses and imaginations." I am drawn to the rewards of teaching because I want to be that teacher that my students say, “That teacher really made an impact on my life, and here’s why.” I want to be able to provide my students emotional and physical help so that they will always know that I am going to be there for them no matter the circumstance. I am drawn to the challenges of teaching because being in the Ed Pro Class I have seen the kindergartens do things that I expected to happen.

One of my experiences that was a challenge was a kindergartner had thrown a tantrum for 20 minutes. We had to learn to ignore the behavior, but it was really hard because she was screaming, and kicking while other students were trying to work. Eventually, she stopped because my mentor teacher called her dad (which she refused to take the phone), and also took snack away from her. I have been able to help students with their work as well as if they were throwing a fit I was able to calm them down, get to them on their level so that I don’t intimidate them with my height, and just really work with them on emotional skills, and being able to use their words instead of throwing a fit.

My dream job is to teacher either second graders or kindergartners. I think that I am more leaning towards second grade because, they are not to big, and not to small. I can grade homework, and just do a lot for them that I maybe could not do for kindergarten. I have always known that Elementary Education was the degree that I wanted to go for because I love being around little kids, I grew up almost raising my little sister because my parents worked all the time, I have 7 cousins all under the age of 9, so I have been able to work with newborn up to second grade, as well as I worked a lot at my church with the preschoolers, and younger kids that are in the nursery. I would love to stay only in the elementary school setting but if I get placed in a higher grade like 4th-6th I am totally fine with that too.

What do I believe? I want to be able to make sure the students know that school is a safe place to be. I don't want any student to be scared to come to school, I also want all of my students to know they can always talk to me if there is any situation. I also think that teachers should make sure that they attend to every student’s needs because all students aren’t the same but they should be treated the same because you don’t know what is happening in these kids lives, they could be yelled at at home and then yelled at at school, that is going to give that student a lot of emotional trauma. You want that student to feel loved, and safe at a school where they know they are going to grow their education and be what they want to be when they grow up.

Why am I still considering teaching as a career? I am choosing teaching because during my first semester of being in the Education Professions once I met the kids, I fell in love with specifically being a second grade teacher. One experience that I had is one of the students really did not like the fact that I was another teacher in the classroom. During recess the second week that I was in there, I had asked the student why she was doing ¨curb time¨ she crawled away from me, put her head in her shirt, and didn't talk to me. The last couple weeks of the first semester she warmed up to me, she read to me, she wanted to read with me when I was reading with another student, she drew a really good picture of her and I, she called me her best friend, she gave me a hug for the first time, she held my hand, and she really just became one of the students that I felt like grew a really close bond to me.

The most important role of a teacher is to help all of the students prepare for the real world, and help them to become ready for their careers later on in life. I also think that it is important that they help students realize that they are worth it, and they have way more potential than they think they have. I wanna help shape them to be what they want to be once they go to middle school, and once they graduate high school.

So with all of that, I have always been drawn to becoming a teacher and now I am making my dream come alive by majoring in Elementary Education and working my butt off in college so I can make sure I get that degree so I can get into that classroom and begin teaching the futures of our tomorrow. I am so so excited to get to have my own classroom, decorate my classroom and make it feel like home, make my own lesson plans(while going with the curriculum), and ultimately create those bonds with my students and love them like my own.

Love, Kayleah Allen