Why a Teacher?

Week 8 of the #youredustory blog challenge brings the question "What was the defining moment you decided to be a teacher?"  To me this is an interesting question because I can not think back to one moment - it was more like a series of events.

My mom was a teacher - she retired three years ago - so I grew up with a high school math teacher as a my mother.  I would always be one of the first kids dropped off at school since my mom's school started early and we didn't have anyone else to help out.  She was also the cheer adviser for a long time so I remember going to practices, games and competitions - and even now I know more cheers than I think a grown man should know!

But I don't think anything my mom did made me decide to become an educator - in fact, as a kid I wanted to be a lawyer or chiropractor.  I didn't decide to become a teacher until my third year in college.  I was a Biology major, so I was in classes with all of the pre-med students and the competition was fierce.  I held my own, but I realized then that I did not want to spend another 4 years in school with that type of student.  So I started looking in to the teaching program.

Nice farmer's tan!

At that point I started to think back to my grade school teachers and a few stood out.  There was Mr. Huff in 4th grade who made me "try-out" for the basketball team (I played ever year after and ended up as a high school coach for several years) - I don't really remember him in the classroom, but I loved that he pushed me to do more outside of class.  And many of my high school teachers - Mr. Simpson, Mr. Barbour, Mr. Booth and Mr. Webster.  The first three were also my coaches - basketball and football respectively.  And Mr. Webster was my favorite science teacher (and I eventually became a science teacher).

I can't point back to one moment in time when I said to myself that I was going to become a teacher - but with so many caring educators who took the time to teach me, coach me and mold me in to the person I am today I found my path.  Sometimes I think about all the students that I had pass through my classroom and I wonder what type of seed I may have planted for them?  Hopefully one day they will sit back and think that I had a positive impact on their future - though I may never know!