Sarah B. McCann

I have been coordinating summer camp this year so I had not been in the classroom as a teacher until this morning. I have to say, I have missed it. There is something really amazing about teaching. Being the one to set up circumstances so that my students are successful is an amazing role to have. It is making sure students achieve much more than just a completed project, it is making sure they are successful in their relationships with me, with each other, with the materials they are using. It is creating the environment necessary for their own personal growth. It is ensuring that judgement and criticism are not the basis for their interactions in the classroom, but rather support and care.

The fact that how I act, what I do and say will either support and create a safe space for learning or destroy it is a great responsibility, but one that I love. When students are all engaged in a project, discussion or game, it is obvious and brings me joy. Of course the structure one sets up does not always work. Different students need different things, but this is what makes teaching interesting and fun. The flexibility to change when something does not work, to observe what students need and to create this in the classroom is the challenge of the role. It is different with each new group of students. It is the beauty of teaching, the fact that it is organic, malleable and always in flux. And it has as much to do with the students as it does with me.