Why Teach?

 Why Do I Want To Teach?

    My name is Sadie Martin and ever since I was little I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I use to constantly play teacher with my American Girl Dolls. After I grew out of the playing teacher phase I started becoming interested in other careers but never loved them as much as teaching. This lead to a flipflopping of answers to the famous "What do you want to be when you grow up?" . When I entered my junior year of high school it became very clear to me that I wanted to do when I was older. My high school had lots of electives that were career based so that people could find out what they wanted to do for a career with no consequences.  I chose to enroll in the teacher electives and that was a choice that would change my life. I was in a class called Camelot and it was a program where juniors and seniors got to be teachers for pre school aged students. This class changed my life for the better. Before Camelot I hated going to school and had tons of absences.  As the course went on I fell in love with teaching and being in the classroom. Seeing the lightbulb turn on for students you're teaching is such an awarding feeling. Being in a program like Camelot made me feel like the little girl who was teaching her dolls. I fell in love with being a teacher. 

    My future hope for teaching is to become a Kinder or 1st grade teacher in my home district. I want to create a classroom that has a sense of community. I want to create inclusion in my classroom so that everyone can relate to the material. When you see yourself in the material it is more engaging and you can relate to it more. In one of my classes last semester we were asked to drawl what we thought a scientist looked like. Despite the class being all females, we all drew men. This is a prime of example of representation in the classroom having effects on kids. Anytime you read a book or play  a video kids are looking to see themselves. This is why my main goal in the classroom is for my kids to know that my classroom is a safe place.  I am really excited to have my own classroom and start all the milestones. 

    My favorite teacher I have seen on social media is  @lovemsslater . I love the teaching style she uses in the classroom with her students. She creates a community in her classroom and is someone her kids can come to with problems. She portrays herself as someone of authority but also shows that she is kind, she makes mistakes, and she can have humor too. Her most recent video shows her having a kid blurt out during a lesson and I think she handled it amazingly. She called him out without it feeling direct and told the class why they don't do that and then still called on him.