Friday, January 21, 2011

Who Was Your Favorite Teacher?

Around November 2011, after months of prayer and quite a bit of foolish worry, I made the decision to pursue my alternative certification in teaching. I had been encouraged to do so in the past, but I wanted to make sure that I was doing it for the right reasons. With the realization that God could impact our schools through me, that this could be another form of youth ministry and not just a tent making job, I began training with Texas Teachers. I've gone back and forth between excitement and nervousness, but typically the positive outweighs the negative. My prayers are that:
  • If this is where God wants me, that I would find a job for August
  • That God would use me when I do find that job
  • That I would be able to continue my work at Cornerstone church
I will start substitute teaching here pretty soon to help pay for school and start saving money for an apartment (and to make myself known in the school district) and so I pray that will go well too. I've heard subbing is fairly hard as most students don't tend to treat subs all that well. Please cover me in your prayers. But as I approach this task and the actual task of teaching my own class, I have two questions to ask my readers (all two, haha). It might inform me to be a better teacher and it might just be a good laugh. But here it is:
  • Who was your favorite teacher in school and why?
  • (For the mother's out there) What would you expect/appreciate from the teacher of your children?
My favorite teacher in grade school was probably a toss up between my senior English teacher, who not only had mercy on my after getting my wisdom teeth out but bought me crackers and sprite during our final because I had a stomach bug and was also a constant beacon as a Christian in our school, and my Junior Spanish teacher who spent countless mornings trying to teach me the proper use of reflexive verbs and didn't take crap from anybody but always made Spanish very entertaining.

In College I LOVED my British History professor, who also had mercy on me amidst a bad stomach bug (I tend to get those a lot for some reason... ) that occurred right before our first exam, and knew soo much about his subject to make it often sound like a soap opera. All of these teachers and professors made their subjects come alive, had good control of their classes, and had mercy when they knew particular students were in desperate need of it. I want to be like that as a teacher, but more than that I want to be a lamp on a stand, to parents, students, teachers, and staff. Pray for me! And pray for all our teachers! They need it!

2 comments:

Ashley (Crouch) Yates said...

Courtney,

I think its great that you are pursuing teaching! I have been teaching now for 5 years and through the ups and downs I've learned that the most important quality in a teacher is compassion and persistence. If the students know that you care, they will do almost anything to make you proud of them. I hate hearing teachers say things like "there's no use" or "they'll never pass." My all time biggest pet peeve is when special education students don't receive the additional help they need because "they don't count on TAKS." If you follow through with your teaching career, please keep in mind that every single child that steps into your classroom counts! They are all special people no matter how hard it may be to reach them or even like them at times, and they are all depending on you not to give up on them!

Good luck in your journey!

celiselott said...

Thanks so much for all the advice! I will try to remember all of it!