Curiosity. My need for knowledge. My need to explore. My need to learn. Where did it come from? Looking back, I would say that my oldest friend taught me how to explore my curiosities. George was by my side since I could remember. His stories inspired me to follow my heart and curiosities. I always knew that I would dedicate my life to service to others. But how could I combine my passion for service and my need to explore curiosities? I realized my purpose was to inspire others to follow their curiosities. During my last two years of college, I knew I had to become a teacher and to spread my love of learning and exploring.
This year, I spent my time training to be a teacher. I started the year filled with excitement, but also many questions. I was curious about many things. What was PACT? Would I make it through this year? Can I do it? Will I be a good teacher? Will my students like me? How can I possibly feel like a real teacher by the end of the year? What's an EL? Will I get a job? My curiousity seemed ovewhelming
All I could do was work hard, wait, and find out. Meanwhile, I experimented with sentence frames, creating equity in my classroom, creating cross-content lessons, SDAIE and ELD strategies, positive reinforcement, promoting multiculturalism, creating a social curriculum, having students reflect evaluate their own behavior, questioning to guide students' learning, using intrinsic rewards, and providing access to learning. All the while, I wanted to develop the whole child, promote lifelong learning, and citizenship. How was I supposed to incorporate all these ideas and teach academic content? Did I even have time to be curious?
There were times filled with struggles, doubt, and late nights, but hearing one child exclaim, "That was really fun!"after one of my lesson reinforced my decision to endure. I soon realized each one of my lessons became stronger and stronger, and I found many fun and exciting ways to engage all students. I wondered about different ways to make learning more fun and exciting for my students. Because of my curiousity and creativity, I came up with exciting lessons. My students wrote a letter filled with follow up questions to an author, held a election, created rock journals, explored rolling motion with rollers and marbles, and learned fractions with fraction kits. I engaged students' curiosities and I was on the road to becoming a teacher! I didn't want this feeling to go away.
Now that I have completed my year of student teaching, I look forward to engaging and teaching more students. I cannot wait to find out what curiosities I still have. With my own two hands, I know I can change the futures and lives of my student. With all that I have learned, I hope that I can inspire students to listen to their curiosities. Just like the Man in the Yellow Hat said, "The real way to learn anything is to go out and experience it and let your curiousity lead you."
