December 18, 2015
In The End, It's All Worth It
Dear Dr. Laura:

When I started my teaching career almost ten years ago, I longed for a job in a public school with thirty students to take under my wing and teach.  In my mind that was the only way to be a teacher.  But the only job I could get at the time was in a small private school, which closed one year later due to lack of funding.  Several of us joined together to restart the school and we're now in our seventh year of operation.  We have 20 students total from Kindergarten through eighth grade, so we're very small.

We have a full-time administrator who doubles as a teacher, three full-time teachers and two part-time.  One of us is there in the morning to greet the students and one of us is there at the end of the day to send them off in a positive way.  Our social curriculum is as important as our academic one.  We work tirelessly to teach our kids to be compassionate, loving, respectful and well-mannered individuals.  Each week we focus on a different virtue, like integrity, responsibility or kindness and discuss how and why they should incorporate it into their daily lives.  I have eight kids in my class full-time, so they get my undivided attention.  I communicate with their parents daily.  We keep our tuition exceptionally low so that a wider variety of families can afford us.  That means the majority of our staff has to have a second job to make ends meet, but for us, it's worth it.  

Although I once thought that I wasn't a "real" teacher because I had such a small classroom, I realize that what we're doing is incredibly important and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Ann


Posted by Staff at 10:59 AM