Over the past few weeks, I have written articles addressing the homeschool model in which we educate our children. Many of you recall that in those articles I address the hows and whys of hiring a teacher to educate our children. On that topic, I requested that our teacher, Jeanette, write an article from her point of view.
Thank you Jeanette for being the guest writer this week!
Figuring out what you want to do with your life isn't always an easy task - which seems to be why most people struggle choosing a major in college. Yet, I seemed to be blessed with the knowledge early on in life that I wanted to be a teacher. As the firstborn of three children, I was always teaching my younger brothers new skills and took great joy in watching them learn new things. In High School, many teachers deeply impacted my life and made me realize I wanted to pass that gift along. By the time I was required to choose a major, I had no doubt that elementary education would be the best way to love children and help them grow into better people.
Everyone told me that my first year would be a huge learning curve, but nothing was able to prepare me for the overwhelming responsibility of being EVERYTHING (teacher, mentor, friend, disciplinarian, guide, counselor, manager, parent and role-model) for a group of children I had never previously met - all with different mental, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs/challenges. The enormity of the situation had never before hit me with such force and over the next three years, I slowly began to realize that I did not have the time, energy or resources to be everything each child needed, every day. Most of the time I would be lucky if I could spend quality time with just a few students for a few minutes of the day before I would be pulled back into the swirling vortex of grades, lesson plans, bulletin boards, parent communication and classroom management. Even spending nine or ten hours a day, plus coming in on the weekends, would never allowed me to fully catch up, feel totally prepared for the next day, or even worse have time to deeply connect with the kids I knew needed someone to care about them.
As I looked around me, I realized this wasn't an uncommon feeling. The closer I got to other teachers, the more I noticed that they didn't have a life outside of the classroom. A good majority of teachers were feeling burnt-out or overwhelmed and it spilled over into their personal lives. Even looking at the “great teacher movies" like Mr. Holland's Opus, Stand and Deliver or Dangerous Minds, they all emphasized the fact that a great teacher must sacrifice their time, energy, personal resources and even health to deeply impact the lives of the students they so desperately want to help. This unhealthy mentality and role-modeling was something I couldn't see myself propagating or being a part of.
Once I realized that I didn’t want to be a teacher in a traditional classroom, I was thrown back into the struggle of what to do with my life. Even though my fundamental desire to make children’s lives better still hadn’t changed; I just wasn’t sure how to make that happen. I saw huge problems in the current educational model and wanted to be a part of something that was better. After months of looking around for the right kind of job, a friend of mine told me that the Rodericks were looking for a homeschooling teacher. At first I wasn’t really sure if it would be the right fit for me but soon found that I loved being able to work so closely with all three children.
As a homeschooling teacher, there is an incredible difference from teaching in a classroom! With three children it is SO much easier to be flexible, design curriculum or extra projects to fit their specific learning style, spend quality time with each child, let the children follow their passions, encourage multiple intelligences, take field trips, teach other languages, travel to other countries, create more hands-on projects and create an environment that benefits every single child in the room! I also love being able to work so closely with parents, especially since we share such similar philosophies. In a traditional classroom, there are so many politics pulling a teacher in multiple directions, whereas working with one family we have the chance to discuss what we want to do, what goals we have for the kids, what projects we would like to accomplish – then go out and do them! There is no need to run everything by the board, get permission from 20 different families or hope that most everyone will like the projects I have designed.
Having worked as both a traditional teacher and a homeschool teacher, I can honestly say that there are many advantages to being a homeschool teacher. I love the freedom, flexibility, ability to do real-life activities, and close relationships with both students and parents. This arrangement has worked out wonderfully for me and I feel as though I have finally found a great way to truly impact children and help them on the journey to becoming intelligent, confident, responsible adults.
Jeanette Morris
Bozeman, MT
Posted
Jul 03 2009, 09:55 PM
by
StacyGotoBilling