The Best Job

I regard myself as extremely fortunate in having a job where I get paid to do what I love and have great fun doing it. Not all days do I feel quite this way but today was a good one. How school has changed since my day and thank goodness for that. In my school days the teachers talked at us and barked out orders. From the front of the classroom they wrote up page numbers on the blackboard with barely a glance in our direction. I'm sure this non descript impersonal approach that I was subjected to has made me the more determined to ensure that my chidren don't suffer the same fate. I look in fondness to a teacher who has had a lasting and powerful impact on me as a teacher. When I graduated from Teachers College and was thinking of a story to read to my class I recalled 'The Whale Adventure' by Willard Price that had been read to us. Reading this book to my own class triggered the most important teaching tool for me when I discovered the power of words discussed in my blog Word Power. Through my teaching days I believe I have developed programmes that allow children to learn while having fun. I have seen dramatic transformations in children when they realise they understand something that previously had frustrated them. Ultimately there is a deep sense of satisfaction from knowing that for that one year at least I am a significant someone in their lives.