My Favorite Things About Teaching

I really do love my job, which is a total miracle and gift from Yahweh. My first two years teaching, I thought it would kill me, but once Yahweh told me who I am and gave me my identity, I could finally step into the role He graced me for.

So here are my favorite things about my job:

1) Speaking Kingdom to my students, and showing them through my life who Yahweh is and what He can do.

2) Making a difference in my students' lives.

3) Hugging them when they're excited or having a bad day, and knowing that I can bring them comfort when they cry.

4) Being called "Mom" accidentally.

5) Being told that I'm their favorite teacher.

6) Hanging out with students at events that aren't in the classroom, like dances or field day.

7) Making children laugh.

8) When they make me laugh (which is often).

9) Sharing my passion for language with them, and finding the few who are also poets and linguists and lovers of the art of language.

10) Telling students that their lives matter, they are valuable, they have a bright future, and anything is possible.

11) When they share their frustrations and problems with me, and I get to tell them about how the same thing happened when I was their age, that it gets better, and that hormones are sucky liars but they eventually go away.

12) Talking with my older students about their futures, and seeing how they've changed since when I first met them. Watching them become aware of the world around them and their role in it. Seeing maturity happen.

13) Graduation.

14) Celebrating student achievements, whether through awards or just patting a kid on the back or giving them a high five when they've done something well.

15) Seeing students improve either in academics, attitude, or behavior.

16) Providing a safe place for them and having them trust me.

17) Knowing that I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

18) When a child is excited to show me something they've done or something that has happened in their lives because they know I'm interested and want to share in their joy.

19) Feeling like I know what I'm doing.

20) Knowing that these kids are MINE to steward and I will stand for them and declare that they are also Yahweh's and He will find them wherever they are!

21) The way I feel at the end of a school year, that even if the kids learned nothing about language from me, they learned that they're loved, that they matter, and that they truly can do anything. And I hope they learned a little language too.

22) Each and every unique (and often strange) personality that comes into my classroom. :)

23) That I can be for my students what I wish someone had been for me: someone who has been through what they've been through and conquered. Who can tell them on the other side that the battle is temporary and the victory is permanent, and that the problems of the moment pale in comparison to  the joys of a lifetime. And for this joy set before them, they must persevere.

So you see, though I love language and sharing it with students, the academics and test scores and other things that the world says matter are only secondary to my true purpose there. Though I want my students to have every tool they will need to be successful in whatever they decide to do for their futures--and I will provide these tools to the best of my ability--in the end, it is my love for my students that makes my job worthwhile. It is the purpose to which Yahweh has called me and for which Yahweh has graced me. It is the sympathetic ear, the warm embrace, the conversations I can have in which I share with my students something some of them have never heard before: "You matter. I love you. Now, go change the world."