In this episode, I talk to Leslie, one of my former students who answered the calling to become a teacher. Leslie shares great insight into what it was like to teach in a Title 1 school that the state took over and managed because of low scores on state tests. She explains how “data does not shape or mold a child or determine who they really are or their potential.” Leslie also shares the heartache and the burden of the demands of making “learning gains” during the day at school when really all she can worry about is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and what is going on in her “kids'” world at night when they aren’t at school…are they safe?… are they getting enough to eat?… do they have clean clothes? This reality in teaching is so hard and can easily break a teacher’s heart. Yet, Leslie says that the greatest gift of teaching is “the privilege of working with little humans and all their unique and special personalities that will someday show up and make a difference in this world.” To all the true teacher hearts like Leslie’s, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
In this very first episode of Teacher Tales, we talk to Laura, a 4th grade teacher in Florida who has been teaching for 20...
In this episode, we talk to Meredith, a high school Spanish teacher and conference “junkie” who gives so much to her students, to her...
In this episode, we meet an international teacher, Alexandra, who started out teaching in the USA, but has now taught in China, Viet Nam...