Teaching

Bruce Lee as a mentor in life. I certainly have not much knowledge about him but the discipline of martial arts always applealed to me. I was a team sport player, my kids were all team sports players. My daughter had to decide between becoming a horseback rider (much alone time), or a basketball and Lacrosse player. Well her teammates were already part of her life - it began in 3rd grade. Kind of hard to let go of that and go on you own way. Kind of matches what chapter 9 teaches about the increased importance of peers as students hit middle school.

We recently had to think through our mission as a teacher. What exactly is it that each of us hopes to find in the classroom. It was hard to synthesize it down to a small morsel and in fact, to accomplish another projects requirement, I split my mission into two parts and called them mission and goal. Maybe some of the same but at the time I did not think so.

My mission as a teacher - what do I want to do. Well, I want to make a difference in someones life. I want to be a positive influence where I know many students today do not have one. I want to a person of stability, of positive persona, of committment and excellence. I want to work in a team for a greater purpose (or at any rate suffer together if that is the consensus of a long day or week). I want to move people forward in life towards a positive future.

My beliefs come into play though I have not really had to exhaustively write them as of yet. That each child is uniquely created with the ability to learn is a belief. That teachers have a tremendous influence is a belief as well. It is great to help someone develop who they are and what they are able to do. I would like to be able to play a part in developing cognitive skills - thinking skills for my students. I believe that art connects so many things in life and as that is an area that I enjoy, I am going to figure out how to use it to accomplish those goals.
Ok for now.