New Teacher Exchange

June, July and August. 

It's an old joke, but actually, one that I believed in when I was deciding to become a teacher.  Without those three reasons, I might never have settled into education.

Like a lot of young people, there was a long period of time where I enjoyed being outdoors, carefree and open to whatever might come my way.  Aren't these nearly universal attributes of being between 18-30 years of age?

And, in general, summer is one of the great benefits of being a teacher, whether that means travel, performing other work, having time with family, taking opportunities to learn--it's up to the individual.

Hello Everyone! My name is Emily Tripp. Im a junior at ECU and majoring in elementry education.  I really would love to teach kindergarten but anything if fine with me.  I love children. That is one of the main reasons I want to teach. I would like to tell you about the main person who did help me decide about the career i chose.  Mrs.Giel my 9th grade English teacher and the leader of the teachers group we had at our school.  She was so sweet and nice and loved to teach.  Recently in my EDUC 3200 class we read a article about the heart of a teacher and it truely reminded me of her. She would do anything to teach and she loved every minute of it. She was a great teacher and role model for me and I hope that I can be what she is today.

A popular French Philosopher, Alex de Tocqueville, visited America over a century ago and from his impressions of that tour he shared these words: "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

I'm only a Jr.

because really, as a new teacher, I feel like there are so many more important things to learn from each exhausting, frantic school day than "oh good, my students can do some basic addition problems in less than 3 minutes". I'm a first-year teacher at a school that prides itself on being child-centered, community-oriented, and anti-standardized testing, among many other things. I was lucky enough to student teach at the sister school of the school I'm at now and experience the growing pains (or the blunt force-from-the-outside pains) of a school trying to maintain its vision and not succumbing the pressures of churning out high test scores while also trying not to get "in trouble".