Janet Jennings - Patton Middle School

I teach because it is my passion. Each day brings new joys, new challenges, and new opportunities to learn and grow as an educator and as a person.  The energy, enthusiasm, and idealism that the students bring with them each day, is absolutely contagious!

I feel so fortunate to have the chance every day to make a difference in a student's life.  As each year draws to a close, and I reflect upon all the intellectual, social, and emotional growth of my students that I have witnessed, I feel such a great sense of pride. Yes, it does happen every year, and there are many factors and people influencing that growth.  However, that overwhelming feeling of pride in my students, never gets old.

Teaching is, and always will be, a noble profession.  I am so proud to say, "I teach". I couldn't imagine doing anything else!

Perk Musacchio - Unionville Elementary School

For the last 65 years, the fall has meant the start of a new school year.  As a student and teacher, I was always excited for the start of a new year.  Even as a young child, I always said I wanted to be a teacher. The big question was what to teach.  Originally, I planned to teach French and Spanish.  However, during my senior year in high school, a volunteer opportunity in a special education class completely turned my world around.  I knew then that I needed to work with elementary students with special needs.  This year marks my 39th year with the UCFSD. I absolutely love the challenge of teaching young children.  Each year brings new challenges, but I enjoy seeking out new information, different programs and strategies, and ways to help a struggling student be successful. I enjoy the "detective work" of figuring out why learning is difficult and how to best meet the needs of each child.  In addition, I work with dedicated colleagues who have become my dearest friends.  I have made lifelong friends of parents of former students.  I have taught children and grandchildren of former students. I now teach with former students. However, the highlight of my teaching career came several years ago, when a former student contacted me to see if he could volunteer on his breaks from college. Three years later, he is our dedicated, competent and extraordinary volunteer who will make a fabulous teacher or counselor.  He always says that he wants to work with students who have special needs because of how I helped him in the primary grades. That is why I teach.  I can truly say that there were very few days when I went to "work".  Isn't that what we all want?  To find a career that fills our mind and heart and makes getting up every morning a joy.  Teaching is the only profession that makes all other professions possible.  I am proud that I have made a difference in the lives of many children.

Jen Spisak - Patton Middle School

I teach because I can't imagine doing anything else.  I love my students, the energy they bring, their perspective on life, and the light bulb moments.  I love introducing them to something new and challenging them to truly think!  I may not be the person who cures cancer or wins a Nobel Prize, but I hope to inspire a student who just might.

Dori Ray - Unionville High School

Teaching and learning are joyfully inseparable for me. When people find out that I teach high school math, many shudder and say, “better you than me!” Teaching mathematics, while hard work, is also enjoyable for me. In fact, I feel as grateful and blessed to be teaching today as I did when I started teaching over 20 years ago. 

 

Both of my parents had been teachers so it was easy to imagine following in their footsteps.  I realized that I wanted to teach mathematics when I was a freshman in high school.  I had the opportunity to tutor three little girls who struggled in mathematics.  They ranged in age from 4 to 9 so my challenge was to keep things fun and active for them.  With a little research into their individual needs, I was able to borrow manipulative tools and create a few activities based on rhymes and songs. Even though this was my first teaching job, it felt familiar because there was so much learning involved for me.  I discovered that the planning took nearly twice the amount of time that I would spend teaching with the girls.  This realization has served me well too though:  teaching takes time; but there is real satisfaction and insight to be found in the practice and planning that are keys to a good lesson. 

 

Around the time I discovered how much I enjoyed teaching, Alice Reich, a professor of Anthropology at Regis University, published an essay about why she enjoyed teaching.  In it, she says, “I teach because it is one of the quickest ways to finding out what I don’t know; it makes me alert to new possibilities.  And I teach to create new possibilities.”  This portion of her essay captures an important part of the magic of teaching for me:  there is a mysterious gift in each student’s experience, waiting to be realized.  Working with students at this time in their lives is like wrapping a present.  Years later, when parents and students drop me a quick note to let me know what they are up to, I am struck with such delight as I unwrap my gift.  My former students have taken such a variety of exciting paths ranging from working at NASA, to flying planes, to studying at sea aboard a sailboat, and creating cutting edge architectural designs.  I am so very proud to have had an opportunity to teach but also to learn from their unique perspectives and help them be more tenacious problem-solvers as adults in fields that we might not have imagined when we were together. 

 

I teach because I am addicted to learning.  I love turning concepts over and inside out, trying to find a way that sparks understanding while satisfying the natural curiosity students bring to our classroom.  I enjoy learning new things and being challenged every day to motivate, inspire, create, listen, defend, improvise, plan and entertain.  This is why I teach.