Here are the reasons why I #LoveTeaching

Editor’s note: Feb. 14-21 was the fifth annual #LoveTeaching Week, a campaign started by teachers to celebrate the profession.

It is hard to relate the joy of teaching and why I love it. Part of it is the challenge of the profession.

Every day I interact with individuals grappling with struggles in life and puberty (those pubescent hormones can fry the brain!). I have the opportunity to shape these young minds as they grow and solidify, and as they prepare to embrace the challenges of adulthood. In addition to being teens, often they are also hungry and hurt — literally and figuratively. When students know they can count on me for a snack, encouragement and an open ear, I then realize that I have more of an impact than I ever signed up for. Perhaps a small part of me knew it but never admitted it until it became true.

At times, I’m scared. At times, I’m angry that more isn’t being done for them. Other times, I’m just content that I can make this transitional phase of adolescence a bit easier.

That’s just part of why I love teaching.

I work with some of the most passionate people. When I walk through the school halls and encounter teachers dancing and making themselves look like complete fools to win over an audience that … well, I’m sure you’ve tried holding a teen’s attention for more than five minutes. You know what I’m talking about. Other teachers sing, rap, dress like Jedi (that may only be me), perform magic or tell heartwarming or heart-wrenching stories. I wish I could be a student in some of those classrooms. When I see those teachers going the extra mile I am challenged to consider how much further I can go.

These colleagues are just part of why I love teaching.

The students challenge me — my thoughts, my actions and my beliefs. Sometimes things change, more than students probably believe. Sometimes they themselves change. Either way, we work to shape today and, by extension, tomorrow. This cycle of continuous improvement never gives me a moment to be bored. I’ve forgotten what that feeling is like.

The constant chisel at the rock of “self” that shapes me into a better human is just part of why I love teaching.

The community that extends beyond the school challenges me. The Kansas Department of Education recently hosted town hall meetings across the state to hear what businesses needed from graduates. Soft skills have always been a focus within my classroom, but now this intuition is validated. My “job” is not to teach mathematics. My joy is to teach students how to be successful in the face of failure, difficulty and adversity. They would argue that there is no joy in it. However, sometimes that is the pain of growth and is part of the reason I love teaching.

I get to see that process long before they do. I can see the little seed pushing through the soil even though the fruit may be a long way off.

This is what I relish as an educator: Those moments when the pieces come together and new synapses are formed. The times when students see a light, a light that I have shared in the darkness of their lives — those are the times when they are a light into mine.