By Tracey

In the spirit of David Letterman, and the recent Why I Teach theme, I wrote the reasons why I teach in the form of a top 10 list.  So, here you go, drum roll, please:

 10.  I never get bored –Everyday is different.  I’m always discovering new ways to teach something, taking different approaches, and incorporating new ideas.  I was shocked one day when a friend of mine asked why I still worked so many hours at my job. “Don’t you just get out the October box and do the same thing you did last year?”  This was probably my fourth or fifth year of teaching, and she wondered why I was still putting in the time, when at this point I wasn’t a new teacher anymore. I never teach anything the same way twice.

 9. You get to share your passions with others and watch kids become excited about something - I love learning, so it’s a perfect job for me.  I especially love the elementary level because I get to teach everything.  If you asked me to choose a subject, I’d have a tough time.  I want it all – the math, science, and social studies content, and all the reading and writing that goes along with it.  I love that in my job, I can teach content and skills through my own passions and interests and watch kids become interested, even excited about them. 

Last year, if you remember my posts, I had a class. That is, I had an especially high population of students with personal knowledge of the inside of the principal’s office.  They were the most volatile, defensive group of students I’ve ever taught.  At the same time, I discovered a wildlife photography book called, Polar Obsession, which I loved.  It was one of those books I found myself talking about uncontrollably to friends, acquaintances, and even the guy that cuts my hair.  The photographs were incredible and the stories the author told were captivating.  They connected to our study in science about the ocean and ecology, so I decided to share it with my students.   While the boys all thought the picture of the decapitated penguin in the mouth of the leopard seal was AWESOME, they also were so moved that they actually wanted to travel to the poles.  After sharing a story about the author’s experience growing up in Nunavit, Canada, where survival is a community effort; doors are left unlocked and food shared by everyone, I heard several of my students say, “Wow! I want to go there!”  That is what I live for as a teacher.

8.  You get to go on field trips- I love field trips.  There is so much to learn by leaving the classroom.  Plus the enthusiasm among the kids is exhilarating.  I think I learn more about my students on field trips than I do in the classroom.  Spontaneous conversations pop up in ways that they just don’t in the classroom.  I especially like taking students on field trips to places you might go on an errand, like the public library, airport, and the streets in downtown Seattle.  They’re free, and in some way I hope that when my students are out doing their own thing, they’ll see they don’t need a teacher around to be learning.

7.  Summer!  I will freely admit to this one.  I love summer.  The first time in my adult life when I had to spend summer like everyone else, that is going to work all day, I think I became clinically depressed.  I worked four jobs that summer; but I think it was the office job that pushed me over the edge.  Staying inside all day and wearing regular everyday clothes because if you wore shorts, you’d freeze in the air conditioning, was difficult for me to comprehend.  It was a rude awakening to adulthood and what the rest of my life could look like.  The one thing that carried me through the summer, and away from antidepressants, was my other job as a preschool teacher.  I held this job all through college.  I especially loved the summer months, when we’d take out the hose and make a huge mud pit.  The bulldozers and dump trucks worked to control the flooding.  In the other corner of the yard, we made bubbles.   Summer is like an annual sabbatical – a necessary recharging of the soul.  I say this, while I’m also a huge supporter of year-round school.  I think there can be room for both, however – learning and mud pits with bubbles.

6.  Snow days – I love turning on the radio in the morning and hearing the list of school district closures and delays and hoping to hear mine.  I know.  I love to teach, but I also love a day off.  Especially if that day includes making a snowman.

5.  It’s really hard to hold a grudge – People make mistakes every day.  And, kids make them even more.   But it’s hard for me to remember them past lunchtime.  I don’t have that issue with adults, however.  When an adult person faults me, I remember forever!  I guess I should work on that.  But, kids get a special pass.  Each day is a new day with kids, and we always start out fresh. Years later, they want to be my FaceBook friend.  I still haven’t crossed that bridge. 

4.  Kids at fifth grade still think I know everything and believe what I say – I know this sounds like I’m having an ego trip, and maybe I am, but I love to use this little truth for something else -empowering kids.  If I tell them that NASA called and has asked them to design a new lunar rover, they will actually believe me and try to design the best lunar rover they can.  I love teaching with the Storpath curriculum, where students take on roles while we simulate a time in history.  I make these roles as realistic as possible.  Last year I convinced my class we were going to Mississippi in 1964, but they would still be back in time to take the bus home.  Some students were concerned, and thought their parents wouldn’t let them go.  But eventually, all of them believed so much in the cause of civil rights that they took their roles seriously, debated controversial topics, and worked to make the world a better place. 

3.  It’s important, life changing work, and it makes the world a better place – It is and it does.  You know I’m right. 

2.  People know it’s important, life changing work that makes the world a better place, and they want to help – I have met the most amazing people who all say, “I don’t know how you do it,” but have helped make me a better teacher and shared their expertise with my students.  I’m thinking about the people who run education programs such as at the Mountains to Sound Greenway, the Museum of History and Industry, artists, engineers, and political campaign managers, just to name a few.  These are people who want to share their passions with students, aren’t teachers, and can’t take no for an answer.  I love calling them on the phone, introducing myself and asking, “Can I bring my class?”  They come to our science fairs, visit classrooms as guest speakers, or lead my class in writing and performing a play.  I would not be half the teacher I am without them.  And, going back to reason number 10, it keeps my job interesting.

And, the number one reason why I teach…

1. No matter what’s happening outside my classroom at staff meetings, at administrative retreats, in the legislature, or in Arne Duncan’s office, when I close my door, I still get to teach.   I’m not saying that what happens outside in education reform doesn’t affect me in my classroom and how I teach.  It does – everyday.  But, I can, to some degree, decide how it will impact my students.  I can still decide, on most days when there aren’t walk-throughs and data snaps, to scrap the reading lesson and teach science, or art, or something that makes the kids excited about learning and curious about the world.  I am accountable to my students and I respond to their needs.  Deep down, I think the people who have left the classroom, or for that matter, never stepped into a classroom in the first place, and are making my job harder than it has to be, are jealous they don’t get to have as much fun doing their job as I get to while doing mine.  I teach because my students need me to teach.