My Journey Becoming a Teacher

I have shy of a year left of school until I become a teacher. This journey I have been on has been great. There have been hardships, but there have also been blessings. I have met some amazing people along the way who also are becoming a teacher. These are people I call my new educator friends who have helped me tremendously along the way. Had it been letting me borrow your books for class, having coffee and chatting about our experiences in student teaching, answering my endless questions, studying together, hanging out with me, letting me show you my million pictures of my cats, and just plain being there for me. The path to becoming a teacher is not an easy one like most might think, so it has been wonderful to have people by my side who are also going through the same things. Us future teachers have to stick together!

It's so important to have a support system when following your heart to becoming a teacher. My family and husband have been the best at uplifting me or giving me encouraging words on hard days. They have also been the first to tell me how proud they are of me on great days. Gosh, where would I be without them? I have been dreaming up my classroom designs and adding decoration ideas on Pinterest ever since I figured out this was my calling.

I originally thought about the path to becoming a Nutritionist. I remember one day while I was in Nutrition class at TC, I was writing the notes off the board, and I kept thinking how much I hated it. Do I want to do this for the rest of my life? I don't even like scrubs. I'm not passionate about nutrition. Then, I immediately thought about where I actually saw myself happy in say two to four years. My little brother had just gone to his first year in Kindergarten and I picked him up every single day. It was "Meet The Teacher" night and I had just saw his teacher's room with books everywhere, beautiful inspiring walls of art, animal print, reading centers, and I instantly felt like this was my happy place. I realized what a difference I could make on kid's life and how I loved their sweet hearts so much. Could it be? I have always been a creative person and thought how I could use this in the classroom. A few years ago, when I was a powerful church service, a sweet anointed lady prayed over me and told me I was destined to be a teacher. I thought back to that time deeply. I thought "YES! THIS IS IT!" I'm going to be the best elementary teacher there is. I won't let those kids down.

As I study and plan, I know that there will be a silver lining at the end and it will all be worth it. My heart is in the game and I am so excited to be on this journey! I am currently in Block 1 and is student teaching six hours per week. I'm trying to kick the anxiety to the curb because it is nerve wrecking being in someone else's classroom and not knowing how they do things, but I am learning and getting some great experience under my belt.