Being a teacher is an incredibly amazing career, especially being an elementary teacher. Professionally speaking, you're a professional who's trained to use all kinds of strategies to teach children about everything in their world. Additionally, you learn techniques to keep the behavior of 10-30 kids in check to keep learning going.
This post is inspired by a routine event that I experience at the end of each school day.
At the end of the day, when my last class has left, I go to the front office to pick up and deliver "transportation change" forms to their respective teachers (through which the teacher will find out which kid will go home differently than usual). I love doing this because I get out of my room, and get to briefly visit other teachers' classrooms while they're finishing up their last lesson of the day. A few times, I've walked into one 1st grade class where the kids were learning how to count coins (with plastic coins), learn their values, and how to put them together in different combinations thereby resulting in different amounts. They learn stuff like how many nickels go into a quarter, and how many dimes go into a dollar. I find it so fascinating and adorable!
Today really hit me for some reason. I went to the office and picked up a BUNCH of transportation change forms. The first few went to 1st grade classes. When I walked inside this one particular class, the room was silent. Upon completely walking in, I saw the teacher, my colleague, holding up a colorful yellow clock with red hour and minute hands. It was showing 2:30. Her students were all sitting, silently, using the evidence in front of them to figure out what time the clock showed. My colleague was speaking with a gentle "inside" voice. She has a little more than 10 kids in her class, 2 of them with special needs. Something about that moment floored me.
In that one moment, I realized I was witnessing moments in learning that adults may completely forget about (i.e., We may forget when we learned them). We take it for granted that we can do something as easy as tell time. And as our knowledge of math grows stronger and stronger, we eventually learn to use expressions like, "It's 10 'til", or "It's a quarter after 6." Looking back, I can remember taking that expression of "a quarter 'til or after" quite literally thinking that "It's a quarter after 6" really meant "It's 6:25".
If I think back to my childhood, I only have 1 very vivid memory of learning how to tell time. I was all dressed up on a stage with my classmates. This was a private, Catholic school, and our administrators, nuns, were sitting in the front row giving us different times. Each kid took turns showing off their skills. What I remember was that the clock we used was HUGE, like, taller than me. And I remember it being heavy. I must've been in kinder or 1st grade. Before the program, we were instructed to say "Would you please repeat that?" if we needed to hear it again. So it was my turn. The principal said the time (and I can't remember for the life of me what she said), but as I went to adjust the clock, the damn thing dropped down from its mount or shelf, and I caught it! I don't remember panicking, but I tried to pick it up, and it was too heavy. Seconds later, my teacher raced to the stage to put it back where it went, and nervously, I asked "Would you please repeat that?" The audience giggled, and with a smile, the principal kindly repeated the time. I displayed it, and earned my applause. That's all I remember.
These moments of learning that I witness are extremely special to me. And they make me proud to be a teacher, especially an elementary teacher. When I truly reflect on my job, I realize how extremely important it is. Typically, a child's first teacher is their parent during infancy through toddler years. Then the kid goes to school and they meet you and work with you. It's because of the impact teachers have on our lives that when asked the following 3 questions, the last one is always easiest to answer:
1. Who won the Superbowl in 2003? I have no clue.
2. Which pop star grossed the most in ticket sales in 1999? I can't remember that either.
3. Name the teacher who had the strongest impact on your life. Dr. Fritz Gechter, my college piano professor.
To all my fellow teachers reading this, and teacher supporters: We hold the world's future in our hands. Our job is the most important job in the world.
"Teaching is the most essential profession, without which no other profession is possible." -David Haselkorn
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