Michelle Roehl

For me, the future has always been an abstract place that is filled with the unknown. I have never been one to plan much for my future because I learned long ago that life doesn’t go according to our plans! I believe taking each day in stride makes me stronger and more prepared for any future ahead of me. I also believe that when it comes to any unknown, you must approach and confront it in order to release any fear. I do not fear my future, but instead will welcome each new day to help define me as a person, a teacher and a learner. So here I am nearing a Master’s Degree in Education and I am being asked to think about my future as a learner, but I can’t help to think about my future in general. Although they say the future is a mystery, there are two things I can say for certain about my own future. First, I will be teacher and second, I will never stop learning. With that being said, here is my reasoning for such certainty when it comes to the unknown: my future.

 

No matter the child or the age, there is the standard question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For me that was the easiest question of all time! From the age of 7, my answer was always “I am going to be a teacher!” It wasn’t a matter of want, it was a guarantee—I found my calling at a young age and I made that dream into a reality in 2010 when I was given the privilege of my own classroom, where I officially “became” a teacher. In was in that same year and in the years following that I realized what being a teacher meant to me. To me being a teacher means being a mother, a nurse, a disciplinarian, a friend, a mentor, an educator and more. It means calling my students “my kids” because I spend more time with them than I do my own family. It means making sure they are safe and happy in my care, as well as independent and self-sufficient. To be a teacher means I make sure my students are learning not only what the state requires them to learn on paper, but also learning how to be respectful, responsible and how to make the right choice in life. It means that they turn to me to know how to respond in an unknown social interaction; and they learn to understand that manners matter just as much as math and reading. I have always said that if my kids learn nothing from me except how to be decent and kind to their peers than I have done my job. I go to work everyday, not for the money or to change the world, I go because I know for 6 hours a day my students show up for the best education they can get! Families trust me with their most prized possessions, their children and I make sure that I perform as a the best teacher I can be. And I wouldn’t change my job for the world. That is how I know I have had and will always carry the passion within myself to be a teacher; I know there is no role more important than the person I am everyday in lives of my own students and all the other children that come in and out of my classroom throughout the years my future holds.

 

Piggybacking off the great pride I take in my profession comes the responsibility of being the best teacher I can be, it would be impossible for me to do what I do without being a learner, as well as a teacher. I know that in order to do my job the right way, I will always push myself to stay on top of current best practices and make myself an advocate for my students. I want to make sure I know how to engage my students as well as make sure the education they are getting with me is the state of the art. Not only is professional development a requirement for being an educator, but I will certainly make sure that whatever I do and whatever I learn I will do for my students; I vow to bring what I learn into my classroom in order to help my students be successful in my classroom and the classrooms they will visit along their own journeys as learners.The future is indeed a mystery; but I hope the simplicity of my goals will keep me grounded and if nothing else in my life goes the ‘right way’, I hope my future as a teacher and a learner stays constant and true. Without teaching, I don’t know who I am or what the future holds, but today I can proudly say--I am a teacher, today, tomorrow and always.