The heart of a teacher

I am linking up with TBA's Blog Hopping Day and writing about what being a teacher means to me.




Hmmm, what does being a teacher mean to me? Well in a nutshell, it means the world to me. I became a teacher at the age of 30, I started college for the first time at 26 years old with a husband and 3 small children. At 23 years old I lost my mother suddenly, my mom owned and operated her own day care/preschool. She was a woman ahead of her times when it came to early education but she had no formal training or education herself. She always said that "someday" she would like to become a "real" teacher. She always said "someday" and she didn't get her someday. 
3 years after my mom passed away I was preparing to teach at our vacation bible school and I found myself saying "Hmm I could do this I could become a teacher, maybe I'll do it someday" I realized that we are not guaranteed a "someday" so I went out to the front yard where my husband was under his truck working on it, I said to him "I want to be a teacher" I fully expected him to tell me I was crazy, that I was too old (LOL at 26 I thought I was OLD) to go to college. Instead he said "OK, we'll do whatever we have to in order to make it work" and we did. The next day I called our local community college and I said "I want to be a teacher and I don't know how or what I need to do" and they walked me though enrolling.  My kids were 2 years old, 5 years old, and 7 years old when I began college for the first time. I went to school at night so I could be at home with them during the day and my husband was with them in the evenings. When my youngest started preschool I went to classes during the day. It was hard work but I wanted it and I did it. I am about to start my 13th year of teaching and my daughter is now grown and she is also a teacher - she teaches 1st grade and has just finished her first year of teaching. - My mother would be so proud of what both my daughter and I have accomplished. 
I teach because I love to watch my students' faces light up when they learn something new. I teach kindergarten because there is nothing more rewarding or exciting than to teach a child how to read. I love that I can give them a solid foundation that they can continue to build upon for the rest of their lives. I teach because I feel it is what I have been called to do. That's it, that's why I teach, I love it, plain and simple.