How Will My Life As A Teacher Honor God's Love For Me?

My becoming a teacher honors God's love for me. I had dreamed of this day for a long time. I prayed and meditated for months as to which career path was my true calling. One day it came to me, I realized that I have a calling to help young people. I knew that the job would be difficult at times. I knew that the pay would not be as good as the alternative path. But what this path offered was hope. The hope of a better tomorrow. The hope that I might help one or two students that felt no one was listening to them. I had a rough childhood in which I never felt heard. I never felt acknowledged. The chaos that was my home, was often out of control and the only place I felt normal was school. God is the one who has directed me on this path of becoming a teacher, it is my calling. By working hard and focusing on becoming an effective engaged teacher I hope to honor his love for me.

Relational Trust

It takes time and integrity to build any type of trust. The trust between teachers and students is just the same. As a new teacher students will be distrusting of my ability and capability. It will take my dedication and creation of a safe environment to get student to trust in my ability and to buy into my teaching methods. The first place I must start is with myself, I must determine who I am as a teacher, what my purpose is, then I must discover how I plan to achieve my truth. I need to establish for myself what my core classroom values are and make sure that all activities and interactions are a direct reflection of these values. It is only then that the student wil begin to trust me and be willing to take risks and open up so that real learning can occur.

Ensure That All are Honored

My truth with respect to teaching is that all students can be taught, all students have a voice, a role, and a responsibility in their educations. Many of our students come from unstable home lives. Some come from abusive homes, alcoholic homes, unattentive homes, and some come from economically suffering homes. The truth is that they are all experiencing environments in which they have no real voice. It is important for students to realize that their education is their own, it is not something that is given to them, but something they are active participants in. School is the place where they can achieve all that they wish to. It is my job to help them reach their potential and desired outcome.

The Loom of the Heart

They “weave” the connections between themselves, their subjects, and their students on ‘the loom of the heart.’ Parker Palmer. This takes time and experience to attain. As an educator this is the goal, when one loves their subject and bring their true self to the subject and the classroom then they can integrate their students into their teaching. In order for a teacher to achieve this level of connectedness they must first find themselves as a teacher and teach from an undivided heart once they have found this place they then must learn who their students are. They must find the connections to make that will allow their students to become an active participant in the exploration of the material. I am merely at the beginning stages of this level of connectedness but this is my quest.

Connectedness

Developing the capacity for connectedness is a process of helping students make connections to not only academic material but to the world around them. Teenagers are by their very nature self absorbed, they are working on discovering their identity. Some of them will never develop past this point, as a teacher it is essential to help integrate into this quest for identity their place an responsibility to the world around them. It is the beginning steps of their path to living a life with an undivided heart.

What's in a Poem?

The poem by May Sarton is the story of a journey to find one's truth, identity, and integrity. Sarton explains that it takes time and effort to live the life of an undivided heart. It takes many people a long time and great growth to find the point in which a person knows who they are, and makes decisions based on that identity and has found their meaning, their truth. The growth requires reflection. Their are a number of people in this world that do what they want, when they want, with no reflection on how it effects others, reflects who they are. We are human beings an therefore make mistakes but it is the lessons learned from these mistakes that forms our integrity.

Identity and Integrity

Identity and integrity are very closely related and interdependent, however they are different. One's identity is who they are, what they believe. Integrity is the choice to live that true identity and to make decisions no maker how difficult based on one's core ethics and identity. Finding one's true identity is a path that takes some longer than others. But one must determine who they are and find their identity before they can live or find their integrity. When I teach I have to teach from my heart, from my identity. I can not emulate another teacher, I must find my identity. My integrity as a teacher depends upon it. Students can see immediately if you are not being true to yourself and will not trust in your ability to teach them.