The adventure begins: Teaching as an exploration
- Cheryl Madliger
- Feb 1, 2017
- 2 min read
If you were to pull out a dictionary and flip to the entry for “adventure,” I’d be over here with a definition I pulled from a dictionary website waiting for you and wondering where you found a dictionary in book form:
a : an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risk b : the encountering of risks <the spirit of adventure>
an exciting or remarkable experience <an adventure in exotic dining>
an enterprise involving financial risk
As I approach graduation from Althouse and think about the start of my career as an educator, I have started to appreciate the way in which this is all a great adventure. I hear from concerned friends and strangers, remarking on what they perceive as a not-so-hot job market, about the “danger” and “[financial] risks” in choosing the route to being a teacher, complete with time on the supply list and in non-permanent positions. Before enrolling in teacher’s college, I completed my Masters and had offers about a PhD plus a few promising jobs, but I knew I wanted something else. To outsiders, it might have seemed strange. But that’s where the “exciting” and “remarkable experience” aspect of the adventure matter to me.
Teachers have the opportunity every day not only to learn new things, but to share those things with a class full of students. They are in a position to profoundly impact the students they teach for years to come. During my time practice teaching and exploring other avenues in education, I have realized more than ever that my own passion for lifelong learning is what makes every day an adventure in itself. It is tough to be bored when you think the world around you is fascinating, and it’s easier to get out of bed in the mornings when you are excited about something.
Looking back on my journey thus far as an aspiring educator, I can say that there have been scary moments, just as to be expected with any adventure. If I close my eyes, I think I can still feel the butterflies from the first day of my first placement. And there have been a fair share of exciting times, like receiving the submissions of the first assignment I’d come up with entirely on my own, for instance. And remarkable ones, too, like watching a group of students on a field trip turn the sounds of the forest into a soundscape using iPads in the woods, for example.
As an educator, I hope to inspire my students to go after what really makes them feel alive–and feeling alive, in my opinion, ought to be part of the definition of an adventure. For me, that is the process of crafting lessons and seeing doors open and ideas click for students. It is having the opportunity to be a source of inspiration and the kind of teacher who not only challenges them, but reminds them of their potential and the greatness they already possess. So, who’s in for an adventure?
Комментарии