Posted by Mrs. Curran, 3rd Grade
Before I started graduate school, I was a hiking guide at one of the local ski resorts. An ideal job, right? Absolutely. I was getting fantastic exercise, out in the mountains of Vermont almost everyday, great company with guests from all over, and being considered an absolute expert when it came to anything nature related. Truth be told, I am no expert on nature. I am not a nature girl. I do not know every plant, tree, bird, bug, animal habit, etc., but when I wore that hiking guide shirt, I was the person that knew all about nature. What I said was the answer, and it always seemed to impress these folks from all over. Well, teaching young kids is kind of like that.
When I decided that this “career” as a hiking guide just wasn’t enough for me, I decided a future in elementary education was what I wanted. I couldn’t have been more right. This great decision led me to graduate school. I found it funny though — going to school to learn to teach –being taught to teach. With classes like Instructional Component, Child Development, Education Research, the list goes on, I was being equipped with everything I would need to know to teach. Right? Um, absolutely not.
I’m in my sixth year teaching 3rd grade, and I’m sure I use what I learned in graduate school to some degree, but I sure didn’t learn everything.
Let me begin by saying that most of my sweet and loyal 3rd graders think that I do actually know everything. I received a sweet note from a student the other day that read, “Dear Mrs. Curran, you are the best teacher ever, and I know for a fact that you are the smartest Mrs. Curran ever.” My apologies to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, but it is just what the kids believe. I am the first to admit that I don’t know everything, but when you are the teacher and a kid asks you a question, you just have to answer and to KNOW the CORRECT answer. It puts a lot of pressure on you to deliver. Google has been a saving grace really, but even Google doesn’t have all of the answers.
Let me explain. Christmas is just about the best and worst time of year as a teacher. The kids are in HIGH spirits — read out of control. Christmas is magical when you are around kids all the time. Every year I have to explain how Santa makes it around the world in one night. There is an actual science to it. Keep in mind that 3rd graders begin to reason, and it is just too much to believe that it is just magic. They need something a little more concrete. It always gets covered during a Social Studies lesson which covers lines of latitude, longitude, time zones, the international date line. It gets so technical and extensive that even I believe myself when it comes to this explanation.
A lot of questions just rely on my personal opinion, but my opinion is the right answer in their books. “Mrs. Curran, do you think a shark or an alligator would win in a fight?” “Mrs. Curran, do you think they could actually have people live on Mars?” “Mrs. Curran, where did people go after they died before Jesus opened the gates of heaven?” “Mrs. Curran, what color was named first?” “Mrs. Curran, why don’t we get a letter E, and it skips right to an F?” “Mrs. Curran, who invented writing in cursive, and why do we have to learn it if we don’t have to do it after 5th grade?” “Mrs. Curran, if you shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day, then why isn’t it a law?” “Mrs. Curran, why does my mom get mad at me for not eating her dinner, when it isn’t healthy and I shouldn’t eat unhealthy foods, and it also tastes horrible?”
Whatever I can come up with satisfies them enough to not ask again.
As often as I get asked questions that come out of no where, I also know that my words and my instruction go beyond the classroom. I am told that quite often by parents. For example, consider this evening situation involving a supportive 3rd grade parent trying to help their child with homework or study for a test, and they give some helpful advice or direction. The child flatly informs them, “That is NOT how Mrs. Curran told us to do it.” This actually translates to mean that there is no other right way to do it. Ouch.
There is no way I could have ever been taught to teach in the way that I do actually teach. Teaching is such a powerful position, because what you teach is carried with people forever. Everyone has a distinct memory of a teacher that affected them in some way, positive or negative. I carry this with me daily. For me it is the most serious factor of my job — that I will be remembered forever in these children’s minds, but I am in control of how I am remembered. No one could have taught me that in school.
So how does a teacher learn to teach? I take it one day and one moment at a time, while always learning from my students first and myself second. The students teach me everything that I need to know about how to teach tomorrow. Then tomorrow tells me how to teach the next day. I’ll never be able to predict the questions that will come to me day in and day out, but I do know that I will always come up with something. With maybe a little help from Google.
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