Why I'm Going to be a Teacher

While I've been teaching Speak to my 9th grade classes, I have been assigning journal prompts for the students to write about. One of the prompts that I assigned last week was "What would you change about high school?" I got one response from a real top-notch student of mine that was a real eye-opener to me, and especially from the perspective of a person who is new to teaching altogether. Here is her response:

If I could change somethings in high school, I would change the student and teacher relationship. I think that teachers don't make much of an impact in their students' life, like they used to when we were in middle school. I also believe that for some kids, a teacher and student relationship is very important and gives some students the extra confidence to know that even when you believe that you can't do something, they [teachers] have the confidence that you can.
I believe that the big difference from middle school to high schol is that teachers don't appear to be or want to be close to the students like the middle school teachers do; they actually take the time off to get to know the students. That's the only thing I would change about high school.

This was a real eye-opener to read. My whole motivation for teaching is to connect with students on some level. As Gary Allison would say, to reach and teach each and every student, one student at a time. I want my students to know that I care and that's why I am going to be a teacher.