when i grow up....

It was the summer before I was about to enter the third grade. My best friend and I had been placed in Mrs. George's class, and her mother was not happy. She immediately called the school to have her switched out, and encouraged my mom to do the same. She, and many other parents of the kids in the class, had heard that Mrs. George was mean and strict and that if it was possible, to switch their children out. My mom just looked at her and said, "Even if she is, Kristina will have to learn to deal with it." I was anxious going into school on the first day, and I walked into the classroom expecting to see the witch figure from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Instead, I saw a friendly looking lady with curly hair and gold glasses and a big smile. This was the year I decided I wanted to be a teacher.

Mrs. George wasn't mean or strict or any of those other bad things I had heard about her. In fact, to this day, I still believe that Mrs. George was one of the best teachers I have ever had. She was tough when she needed to be and knew how to get us to work to the best of our ability every single day. I remember writing journal entries as if we were the Native Americans around Thanksgiving time. I remember playing "Mad Minute" to perfect our multiplication tables. I remember the hugs she used to give us if we were having a bad day, and I remember how proud we made her with all of our hard work. I remember her crying on the last day of school, and when I saw her recently at the supermarket, ten years after being in her class, her eyes lit up. "Kristina! Look what a beautiful young woman you have become!" This is the kind of teacher I want to be. Even though I may not be the teacher that makes parents call the school and request that their child be in my class (for Mrs. George, it was the opposite), I want to be the teacher that believes her students can do anything, and encourages them to do so. I won a writing award in the third grade because Mrs. George believed that I was a wonderful writer. Since then, writing (English) has been my passion, and I wonder if I would be at the point I am now if it hadn't been for Mrs. George.

I want to be that teacher that children will remember for the rest of their lives, the one that made them feel as if they could do something in this world, not only to help other people, but to better themselves in the process. As a teacher, I want to be the one that my kids can come to with good news because they want to share it with me, bad news because they know that I will be there for them, and whenever they need someone to talk to. Through the VIPS program and my tutoring at The Little Zoo, I hope I have accomplished a small part of this. I hope that when the children I had in my groups go on to elementary school and high school that they remember when they were learning how to read, and the first time they read a whole book by themselves. I'll remember. Although I am going into secondary education, this experience has proved itself to be more than valuable. It has not only enforced the fact that I want to teach older students, preferably high school, and some day, college students, but it has also helped give me the push I need to start becoming that teacher. The teacher that I hope will make her students proud and make a difference in each of their lives.

I also hope to be the teacher that students will talk about and say, "Yeah, she's the one whose classroom I feel safe in." I hope to be the teacher that uses multicultural and linguisitic differences to my advantage, and to the advantage of the class. I hope to be the teacher that makes her students see the world the way it is, and want to better it. I hope to be the teacher that can prove to her students that they can be anything they want to be, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. I want to be that teacher.

I recently went through the old things my mother has kept from elementary school. I found the essay, written in less-than perfect cursive, that won me the Gerald Burns Writing Award in third grade. I found report cards, with perfect grades, and teacher comments telling my parents that I was too loud in class. I also found another essay: What I Want To Be When I Grow Up. The first line reads "When I grow up, I want to be a teacher just like Mrs. George." I guess some things just never change...