Why I Want to Teach

In her podcast, Kaitlin Johnson explains why she wants to teach. She believes that teaching is about creating a safe and happy environment for students to thrive and build connections. Kaitlin shares her own experiences, including discovering her dyslexia with the help of a supportive teacher. She wants to help students unlock their full potential by providing them with the tools and resources they need. Kaitlin also emphasizes the importance of teachers in times of grief and loss, as she experienced the loss of a classmate in elementary school. She wants to be there for her students and help them process their emotions. Kaitlin's passion for teaching comes from wanting to make a meaningful impact on students' lives, helping them push themselves and succeed. She hopes to inspire her students to become teachers themselves and create positive connections in their own classrooms. Hi, my name is Kaitlin Johnson. Welcome to my podcast. It's called Why I Want to Teach, A Range of Emotions. Now, you may be wondering why it's a range of emotions. The reason behind this is because every reason I have for teaching is tied to a specific emotion. In this episode, I will be explaining specific events that have shaped me to who I am. These events range from pure relief, of finally understanding why school is hard, to one of the most impactful, yet saddest moments in my life. So, I'm going to start with happiness. For me, teaching is creating a place for students to thrive and build connections with their peers, as well as gain a knowledge and love for education. In third grade, I finally gained my passion for school, thanks to my teacher for helping me discover that I was dyslexic. Starting in kindergarten, I was often written off as a troublemaker or just someone who wasn't interested in school, although that changed when one teacher believed I had the potential to thrive, yet I just needed some help discovering it. Learning that I had dyslexia was a game-changer. By having just one teacher that believed in my full potential, I was able to succeed so much better throughout the rest of my schooling. So, this leads me to how I want to help other students unlock their full potential. Rather than just writing off students, I want to take intuitive time and initiative to help them find tools and resources to help my students feel fully engaged, whether that be finding out their learning style, whether it's visual, aesthetic, or auditorial, or just finding or helping them discover they have dyslexia and helping them get some help for that. So, this brings me to my next emotion, which is sadness. One of the hardest things I experienced in elementary school was the loss of a classmate. This experience showed me how strong teachers are, as well as taught me the importance of a teacher's constant presence in school. In fourth grade, my class experienced the loss of a classmate. This loss was sudden, and many of us students were close to the growth of the past. As I get older, I often reflect on my teacher's role in my life during that moment, and how impactful she was in helping her students go through grief, confusion, and anger over the situation. This experience has also helped shape me want to become a teacher and be there for my students in situations like this, heaven forbid it ever happened. I want to be able to help students process grief the way they need to and help them feel like they have a safe place to feel those emotions in my classroom. Which brings me to the rage that I feel as someone who wants to teach one day. I've interacted with many kids throughout like summer camps, church events, and after school programs, and one thing that I've always seen is that kids are kids, and they're going to act like that. There are many times I reflect on elementary school for me and think about all the times myself and my classmates got penalized for something like feeling our emotions, or putting the blame on us for something that wasn't completely our fault, but they needed somewhere to put it. So, rage was something that I often felt when I think back on some of my teachers, and I want to be able to create a classroom environment where my students don't feel rage on a day-to-day basis, or they don't feel as they've been misplaced because of something they didn't do. Emotions in my classroom is going to be something that's really important to me, and something that I will always work on with my students. So, lastly, my last emotion is passion. Recently, I've been reflecting on what's given me my passion to teach, and why that's something I want to do long-term. Often people will tell me that education won't be enough money, I'll get sick all the time because of all the kids, and many more scare tactics to get me away from teaching, but for me, teaching is giving students a year full of impactful instruction, learning their personalities, and engaging with students and making those meaningful connections year in, year around. It's giving students the best chance to succeed in their life. For me, I'm passionate about teaching students to push themselves, to meet their full potential, as well as have an adult in their corner willing to fight for them and do anything that they need. So, overall, to answer the question why I want to be a teacher, I want to be a teacher to help students thrive, connect, and learn in a safe and happy environment. Throughout school, I've faced many hard times and good times with teachers, and want to create an impact on students' lives, just as many of my teachers have done for me. I hope this becomes the reason one of my students wants to teach in the future, rather than the reason they dislike school. I want to help students build those connections that they need on a day-to-day basis. Thank you. Thank you.