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Posts tagged ‘Why I Teach’

Sep 2

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Why I Teach

By Mary Buckelew

I think back to my childhood.  I grew up in a teaching family. Our lives were governed by the rhythm of the school year. The rhythm is still comforting and familiar – the beginnings and endings.  My father taught high school math and coached a variety of sports during his 40 year career as an educator. My dad left for work happy and came home exhausted but full of funny and loving stories about his students.  When I was old enough to ask questions like “What do you like about your job?”  My father was quick to tell me, “The students — I keep the kids at the center of what I do – then I can ignore all the rest, the administration, the school board, the well-meaning parents, the mandates that don’t make sense.”   

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Aug 27

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Why I Teach

By Meg Griffin

This question has been asked of me many times over the years. When applying to a school or a district or even socially, people would ask, “Why do you teach?” Growing up I had no desire to be a teacher. In social situations, the question, “Why do you teach?” often seemed to contain an underlying question, “Why don’t you do more?” In the 1960’s teaching was a passé female profession. We were women and we were supposed to reach for the pinnacle as lawyers, CEOs, doctors, or accountants, but certainly not teachers or nurses. THOSE jobs were for the women who had been held back and had not been able to achieve more. Read more

Aug 19

Why I Love Teaching

By Jolene Borgese

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of teaching a ten day writing course to middle school students at the PAWLP Youth Writing Project. I had run the first Youth Writing Project on campus with about 50 writers and six teachers. We weren’t sure what we were doing back then but we knew we were on to something big! It was a success that bloomed into a huge project for 30 years.

This summer, my 12 writers were a mixed bag of pre-adolescents who wanted to come to writing camp, and others whose parents had signed them up.  They all made the best of it. They caught my enthusiasm for writing, and, in their preteen coolness, actually showed they liked my activities. Read more

Aug 9

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Why I Teach

By Marlene Kimble

As a late bloomer in this profession – having stepped into a classroom for the first time at thirty five – I sat with a room full of bright- eyed 22 year olds fresh out of undergrad sitting at the district office eyes glazed over while the HR lady reviewed official documents and we signed on dotted lines.  If you asked any of us why we were there, it would probably be a familiar response: I want to make a difference in the lives of children.  It was true for me too.  I was a mother and wife; I had been home for a number of years; and there didn’t seem to be any job important enough for me to leave my kids so I went back to school to do the job of teaching.

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Aug 6

Why I Teach

By Michael LoBiondo

As teachers, we follow different paths to our vocation, and formal education is a rich and colorful calling as a result. I became a PAWLP fellow because I believe that the “teachers-teaching-teachers” method is part of that mission. I teach today for the same reason that I did when I started out as a high school English teacher many years ago: to share a love of learning with my community.

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Jul 29

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Why I Teach

By Rita DiCarne

The past few years have been tough on Catholic school teachers with the closing of schools and the reduction of teaching staff.  Many of my non-teaching friends encouraged me to leave the profession and “recreate” myself like all the popular magazines suggest.  One friend in particular asked me, “What else do you see yourself doing?”  My response was silence.  I just couldn’t come up with a single thing – not one.

You see, I teach for selfish reasons.  Read more

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