I Love Teaching
I LOVE the excitement, the anticipation, the challenge, and the bazillion opportunities to help transform my students' lives, empowering them to grow and flourish, regardless of life circumstances.
That said, along with the glory comes anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, frustration, grief, and even anger. Teaching is a never-ending continuum of emotions that can confuse or overwhelm even the most seasoned among us.
Do you love teaching, but it sometimes drives you crazy? Yup. Me too.
That's me in the middle ...
Shishmaref, Alaska, 1984
Location: 30 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
I taught English, Math, Graphic Communications, and cross-country skiing. On ICE.
• In Shishmaref, I learned that teaching is 5% content, 15% skills, and 100% about developing relationships.
• I know that doesn't add up quite right, but it's TRUE.
I also learned that those relationships were only as healthy as the relationship I had with myself. Which wasn't great. There was also SO MUCH to learn during my first year, yet a serious lack of guidance and support for everything I was going through: feelings of inadequacy, lack of content knowledge, and no road map for creating connections with students whose lives were so different from my own.
Because of my experiences in Shishmaref, I found myself headed into a career as a teacher educator, obtaining a Master's in Women's Studies at Minnesota State University in Mankato, then a doctorate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I also worked with faculty at Naropa University (in Boulder), helping create online courses for a Masters in Contemplative Education program and then teaching them for 13 years. That's where my understanding of the "inner teacher" began to take shape. The Inner Teacher is that Voice inside each one of us that guides our most sacred center of Self into meaningful action in the world.
Currently, I teach classes in "Career Connected Learning" and coordinate career-related events at Ingraham High School in Seattle, WA. Every day, I try to empower young adults, helping them grow more confidently into the amazing people they want to be -- not just for the future, but for today.