Just a Lowly Teacher

I have a handful of things I want to blog about in regards to education.  This is not the one I thought would come out at this time, but life circumstances have brought it out.

I am a Lowly Teacher!

When I began my teaching career 21 years ago, I had planned on staying in the classroom for 7 - 10 years at the most.  I figured by that time I would be an administrator or some other educational leader at a county office or an university.  Yet, here I am, still in the classroom.  It must be because I am a revision queen!  When I attended the Writing Project, they had to yank works of writing from my clutched fingers because I knew I could make it better if...  As a classroom teacher, each year provides me with an opportunity to REVISE and make it better than it was the year before.

So, why have I labeled myself "Lowly"?  Because I am one of those teachers who leads from her classroom.  I  have lofty aspirations to affect change yet every time the opportunity to "move up" presents itself, I decide not to make the leap.  Don't get me wrong, I am no chicken!  I close my eyes and jump EVERYDAY when it comes to teaching and trying new things in my classroom.  The Writing Project taught me about blind faith.  When my gut tells me to try something for the good of my students, I close my eyes, trust, and jump.  So, why is it that I can't make the jump out of the classroom?

It is an interesting question, I send resumes and most often get interviews.  But when it comes to "jumping" I find quite a few reasons to stay right where I am.  In fact I am facing a decision this week... Will I finally leave the classroom and make the jump?  Of course money is always involved, but that argument does not fly with me because I made the decision long ago in college when I switched from Engineering to Education that I wanted to be happy, not rich.  Spending 6 hours of my day with kids makes me more than happy.  Next Argument: being able to call myself a consultant, coach, coordinator, etc...  Again I am brought back to the students.  If I leave the classroom, will I be able to effectively provide information to educators?  I will admit since joining twitter in February, there are some awesome principals and consultants that teach me everyday!  So I know that I can lead from outside the classroom.

Why do I stay?  Could I leave the classroom? Yes.  Would I be effective? Yes.  Can I affect change? Yes.  Can I help students outside of the classroom? Yes.  So, why not close my eyes and jump?

Here is why I stay in the classroom:
Because when I think of all of my present and past students I get tears in my eyes.  When I try to explain why I teach to people, my eyes light up, my heart skips a beat, and I feel a fire in my tummy.  Because after 21 years of being in a classroom I feel that I am the lucky one to have been given the gift of having the beautiful souls that have crossed my path.  Because I learn so much everyday from my students and colleagues and  my number one passion is learning.  Because I have a 5 year old son who will be starting kindergarten in less than a month and I love the time I get to spend with him that teaching gives me.

Yes, I cold be making more money, have a great title, and get to go to the bathroom whenever I want (that is a whole blog post in itself), but I choose to be a lowly teacher.  This choice has enabled me to feel more love than I could ever imagine, learn more than I could ever imagine, and know that EVERY DAY I get another revision.