At this point of my life, I am half-way done with my college career and on the tracks to becoming a certified teacher. Over the course of two years, I have dedicated myself to providing any help I can to facilitate open and welcoming learning environments wherever I go. Through my field placements, volunteer hours and a job in after-school care stress has reached an all-time high, but with that, fulfillment overshadows it. Every smile that comes on a person's face when they finally understand something, every hand that has been risen to ask for help and every moment teaching others has shown me that teaching is I want to do and feel the need to do. I can't lose that, and here some reasons to remind myself of why that's so.
1) I'm not here to be control
Being a teacher isn't a matter of dominance or supremacy. It's about creating an environment where anyone can enter and doing your best to meet their needs. A teacher, while an authority figure, is, more than anything, a facilitator. The moment a teacher utilizes their position as medium to exercise an all-controlling power, they have lost the essence of what their role is. That's not to say that a teacher shouldn't have control of the class, but no one should teach just to have control. It is a tool best used in order to focus students minds on learning, not to make yourself feel powerful nor to say whatever is on your mind.
2) I'm not here to pat myself on the back
It would be nice to think to myself that I have been some sort of saving force in a child's life, guiding them to the future they couldn't have without my teachings. But I won't waste any of my mental capacity to do so. I don't help students to say "they got that question right because of me." I do it so they can learn, as that is the key to success. I'm not just talking about degrees or diplomas, rather, I am talking about putting people in a place where they can open their mind and free themselves of the restrictions of naivety and ignorance. An educator is there to give people an opportunity to learn and focus their sights on those opportunities. It's not a position to take just to affirm my importance in society.
3) I'm not here to be Mr. Soriano
Teachers are figures that I have always respected and revered, at least most of the time. Never did I really dare to call them other by their title of Mr., Mrs, etc. In a way, I have elevated a lot of the teachers that I have met beyond the restrictions of humanity and put them up as spiritual figures who have come to save unfocused minds, like myself.
Without the guidance of teachers, my internal struggles could have ripped me apart. But when I embarked on the path to becoming a certified teacher, I thought to myself about these figures in my life and realized that they are just people. People who have had similar struggles, crossroads and battles that I have had and will have. People that before they received their degrees, were probably only referred by their first name.They didn't help me because they have powers, they helped me because they took on their role head on to help everyone that entered their class. The best teachers are the ones that remember that students are people and should be treated as such. Furthermore, the best teachers allow themselves to be their selves: human beings who take on the challenge to teach and learn.
