My first assignment in my science teaching methods class was to explain why I want to teach.  I finally wrote it all down and wanted to share it...

Becoming a teacher was never really on my radar until God smacked me in the face with it in September of 2016.  We had just moved back to the States from Italy that July, and I had been praying, and asking friends to pray for me, for wisdom on what I was supposed to do when we got back.  Before we moved to Italy, I was running my photography business in southern Maryland going on six years growing steadily each year, raising my two children, and holding down the fort while my husband lived on a ship in Norfolk, VA, for the middle two of those six years.  I intended to work while we lived in Italy and had the goal of photographing a wedding before we moved back in three years, until I was told I couldn't due to legal issues with the SOFA (status of forces agreement) where dependents of service members are not protected under the SOFA; therefore, had to pay Italian taxes as a small business.  I don't know why my business was targeted while other American dependents continued to work as photographers, other than, it was God's plan.  With my focus taken off of running my business, I was able to volunteer to be one of the Bible study teachers through a women's ministry I was a part of.  My final year in Italy, I was approached to be president of the organization.  Aside from our previous school's almost non-existent PTO, I had never led anything.  So leading a women's ministry that drew 80 women every week and had a 18 person leadership board was a nerve wracking new experience.  But, it was through those three years and all of those experiences that I learned so much about myself, what I'm capable of accomplishing, and how I truly love leading and teaching a group, specifically, the sharing of knowledge and life experiences.  One of my final Bible studies in Italy was focused on understanding the spiritual gifts, and by the end I knew my gifts were leadership and teaching, an idea which was 100 percent affirmed by the other women in my group.  One other thing our tour in Italy, and my stepping away from photography, provided me was wonderful family time, this above everything else was a deciding factor in my next step.

After resettling into the States and unpacking the three shipments of belongings, I began to work on reopening my photography business.  It didn't take long for me to figure out it wasn't where I wanted to put my energy.  Don't get me wrong, I love photography and I miss the interactions with brides on their wedding days and brothers and sisters during a family portrait, but what I couldn't walk away from was the time I would be missing with my own family.  During a conversation with a friend who is a high school history teacher, I experienced the aforementioned smack in the face.  God brought to mind my high school biology/environmental science teacher and how he did everything he could to get us out of our seats and outside studying the environment firsthand.  I thought of the anger and frustration that bubbled up when I read Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities way back in 2007 and how I wanted to work to change the academic realities so many children face at school.  I thought of how I learned in one of my favorite books, Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel, that children have three driving inner needs:  a secure love, a significant purpose, and a strong hope, and that I am finally at a place in my life to encourage children to realize that they have a purpose, are loved and can be hopeful.  I thought, mostly, of how I have only six more years of having my oldest child under my roof and home on weekends, and being a teacher will provide me with a schedule that will meet the needs of my family.  

Reflecting on the excerpt from chapter two of Lortie's Schoolteacher, I can see a lot of his ideas in my life.  I come from a blue collar family; my grandfather, uncle and sister were/are teachers though there was never encouragement for me to become a teacher; I see teaching as a service to give back to my community wherever that may be; and yes, the schedule will allow me to have a career and soak up these fleeting days of childhood in my home.  I can't say that I've wanted to be a teacher since I was a child even though I loved going to school, but I can say that being a teacher is all I want to do now.  I've experienced a lot of and from life, and I'm excited to encourage the next generation(s) to do the same, lovingly, purposefully, and hopefully.

So there you have it, I'm still taking pictures for close friends for fun and because I'm a lover of light, color, and the world around me, so here's a photo because that will always and forever be my creative outlet.