Monday 29 October 2012

Why do you teach?


"It is going to be a good week. I am overflowing, holy cow, I am so full of joy! I feel like my job gets better and better, and not because it is changing— but because I am changing."

I read this a couple of weeks ago in Melody Joy's blog (which I strongly recommend) and it describes exactly how I feel now. I used to hate Mondays. Why? Simply because they were long and tiring - and so was the rest of the week. However, these days I can't wait to see my students every morning! A profund transformation has taken place and it is not because I have a new job!

What has been going on? Well... first, I must confess there have been some changes at work, some of which I applaud, some of which have left me feeling a little sad. I'm not going to go into details today, but all I can say is that facing difficulty at work has made me stronger. And, you know what? Something amazing has happened: I've been able to react against aggression in a non-violent way. I can do it quite well when a teenager gets angry, but NOT when an adult is the one who does it. It wasn't an easy task, but I managed to keep calm and make my point clear without raising my voice - even when I was being shouted at. When I came back home I was genuinely shocked. I felt a totally different person!

So what has happened to me? Melody Joy was talking about a leadership retreat with her church and how it had left her "shaking from the impact", but in my case I can't say there has been such a clear turning point. I haven't travelled a unique spiritual journey or embarcked on a new professional path. What I believe has changed the way I feel is the fact that I have been able to reconnected with WHY, why I chose to become a teacher when I was 17, why I work where I do and with the people there. And what have I discovered? I teach because I love helping others, I teach because I care for the students I work with, and I teach there because I know those students and colleagues care for me. I feel I am part of a team, I feel respected and ...loved.

If you read the post I wrote in September you'll see I am going through some huge personal changes, but the person who made me think again about why I do what I do is called Simon Sinek. I found his videos a couple of months ago and I have been thinking about the ideas he shared ever since. Please, spend 20 minutes of your day watching this talk or any other you can find online. YOU WON'T REGRET IT.


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