Why I Want To Be a Teacher Reflection

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Remember that essay your wrote for your admission to Teacher Education, or maybe you have not applied yet. If that is the cast you will have to write an essay on Why you Want to Become a Teacher. Use this discussion to tell us why you want to be a teacher, what you want to teacher, who influenced you to become a teacher. We would like to see your passion. If you would like to do this as an AUDIO reflection and attach the file, that would be wonderful.

[Nakeisha Kinney]

I always wanted to be a teacher when I was younger; in fact, I wanted to be a 1st grade elementary teacher. This was the case, however, until my freshman year in high school. I decided that my real passion was in writing, so I chose that as my focus. With my writing, I can be myself and really show the world who I am as an individual. When I started attending Fort Hays State University, I wanted to major in creative writing of some sort. I chose to just call my major English with an emphasis in writing so that I could write children's stories. About the middle of my junior, my mom had asked me what I planned to do after I graduated in a year. I honestly wasn't sure at the time, but figured I could possibly get an editing job somewhere. She suggested that I get back into teaching. After thinking about it, I knew that teaching was my first love, and I knew I had the passion needed to do it. As a teacher, I want to be able to not only teach my students the life skills they will need in order to succeed in the real world, but I really want to be able to teach them the skills I learned with writing and hope that this will influence them to bring their own unique personalities out in their writing as well. I've always wanted to be able to reach the younger generation and I feel that I would be effective at this since it wasn't long ago that I was in their same shoes in high school. Passion is the key to teaching. Anyone can easily stand up in front of young kids, pre-teens or teenagers and blab about what nouns are and how to use them. Only a teacher who is truly passionate about the subject can reach deep down into the soul of a student; this is what every teacher should aim to do: not only touch their minds with your knowledge and commitment, but also touch their spirits and encourage them to reach deep down inside and let go of all of the creative juices they may be afraid to let loose. I know that as each year goes by I will improve in my teaching skills and I'll be learning along with my future students, and I believe that this will further make me an effective teacher and a more powerful mentor. It would be an absolute blessing to achieve all of this and much more, and I am working my way toward this goal.