TBCS - My Why - Judy-Anne

Lately the question of 'Why' seems to be being raised a bit for me. Donna Marie asked if I could explain my 'why' for play based learning and I feel that the question of 'why teach' was asked at the mentors course on Tuesday. It may not have been the tutor asking it but I am fairly sure it came up.

I'm not sure what my why was when I started in education now. I know it has been a long journey to get to where I am now - turning down kindergarten training due to poor timing, incomplete secondary training and  two playcentre papers before being told 'you should be doing this' when I was helping in one of my sons junior classrooms.

My diploma was completed part time, by distance and then I upgraded to the degree. My third placement was horrendous (found out later that my associate teacher had a reputation for that) so goodness knows why I kept going. my final placement was fabulous though and I started a number of children to school, was trul;y seenas the teacher of the class and had lovely feedback from management.

After about 6 months I  got a permanent position in a year 7-8 class in Murchison. The photo of the class looked terrifying, but it turned out that they had had a really rough year and once they realised I was going to stay we had a great time together. It was  great to learn that they loved the same sorts of games as the little kids because they were really just little kids in bigger bodies. My favourite moment is still when I saw one of the girls at the shops over the weekends and she was horrified - she truly didn't realise that I had a life outside school!

A few years later I heard via an associate teacher that one of the girls had particularly appreciated that I understood what her interests and passions for (they were not what mum wanted so it had caused problems, both for her and for me as mum was not happy with me.) It was tough as a first time teacher having a parent upset with me so I was pleased that I had done the right thing for the child in this instance.  Sometimes that is my why.

Since coming to TBCS I have realised that I am not necessarily there to be a reading, writing and maths teacher. Sure that is part of it but often what has kept me teaching is that there is a family (and it may only be one) who has a need of me for something else. One I could relate to because of family difficulties I had been through that they were struggling with too, one was a boy who seemed to keep it together better when I was around, I was a mother figure for him.
There have been a couple of families pleased to have their child in my class for longer than they had originally expected (due to changing year levels being taught) because it gives them more time to develop their confidence.

All of this is just a long winded way of me saying that my why is bigger than academics.
I want children to be able to leave our room and our school with  the confidence to give anything a go and to know that mistakes are a learning opportunity, not a failure.