Education from the educated

I've been thinking lately about how I love getting more and more educated all the time. I have a completely insane schedule right now, and at times I do get overwhelmed, but I can't get over the fact that we have all sorts of important people coming in all the time to inform us regarding how to reach our students. I mean we've had the Assistant Attorney General of Utah Steve Mikita, all sorts of people from the State office of education, plus almost all of our teachers are very very educated, and instead of finding research off the internet to discuss with us, they use their own research that they have done. Then they'll quote their own books to us... books that have been best sellers. Their names may not be particularly well-known, but I can tell by listening to them that they have experienced so many things in their lifetimes, and not only that, but have taken their experiences and translated them into knowledge, that they can now pass along to us.

Our liaisons, CFA's and facilitators have been teaching years upon years upon years, and they give us their cell and home phone numbers, email addresses, and encourage us to call them if we ever have a question of any kind. They are really people I respect because they have battled through all of the hard times (and believe me, there are plenty in teaching), yet they maintain their professionalism, and have a pretty good knowledge of how to deal with almost any situation that could come up. For those of you who would argue, you'd be surprised at the amount of balance needed in becoming an elementary teacher. It's one of the reasons I love my major. We learn about all the different subject areas (language arts, literacy, math, science, social studies, geography, health/nutrition, art, etc.). We study human developmental levels and psychology. We learn about how to teach, which is a lot more complicated than one would think (management, planning, how to write lesson plans, assessment and how it drives instruction, etc.). We learn the importance of professionalism. PR (public relations) is a very integral part--in dealing with the students themselves, their parents, co-workers, etc. And finally (although there is never really a final thing to learn in teaching) we begin learning how to implement accommodations and adapt our lessons so that we give each student equal access to the material we are teaching. Now, try to apply all of the aforementioned skills to a classroom of 25-30 children who all grew up with completely different backgrounds and have completely different needs. Not an easy task.

It's hard for me to believe that I've reached the point in my education where I can sit at the feet of these people that have sooooooo much experience, and so much knowledge, and whom I greatly respect (for the most part), and most of all that they are willing to open their lives to us, and allow us to contact them at their homes, and ask them questions about the math lesson we are teaching tomorrow, or the kid in guided reading group 3 that can't seem to grasp the concept of context clues. I sat on the phone with my math professor for an hour one evening discussing techniques on teaching kids what is happening with the numbers when you multiply a double digit number by a single digit number. She has been doing mathematical research on elementary school kids for years, and will be writing a book soon. Our Counseling Psychology Special Education professor has worked closely with a lot of big names in psychology and special education for years, has written books, and really has a passion for what she does. It is a similar deal with my literacy professor. Every time I think about the opportunities I am experiencing, I am seriously so amazed.

Bottom line: Teaching is a great profession, and it focuses me even more on what's important in life. And if you've never been a teacher yourself, you will probably never understand.