Education is one amazing career choice!!!

You know you love your career when the thought of returning to work after the holidays is a positive one!  Thinking of walking back into school Monday and being with the students is something I have missed over the holidays.   I know it sounds a bit corny but the students are the reason I am doing this job in the first place, so might as well get excited about them.  It isn’t always about titrations, atomic theory and how many electrons calcium has, but the experiences within the classroom themselves.  The content can be read from a book and a good teacher should not just be another source of content.  We should be the ones engaging students, sparking interest and turning over the control to them and be a guide.  Let them create content and acknowledge their previous knowledge. 

This 2 week break has been a great time to spend with family and take time for myself, but it has also been a great time of self-discovery.  After being inspired by fellow teachers, graduate students and professors a like, I have taken time to really think about my teaching career and graduate level schooling.  I think the two are so highly infused within each other that I can’t look at them separate.   I have taken to making this blog and establishing an online identity (thanks @monicaannebatac) and also making connections with those in my field.  Having read Chris Emdin’s book Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation (@chrisemdin), I decided to message him to share that his work has helped with my own work.  I received an immediate response and felt very inspired that someone with such a wealth of experience and a leader in urban science education took the time to acknowledge my work.  Talk about technology bringing us closer!