Defining Moments of my Life as a Teacher

Throughout our lives, we all have a number of defining moments; those are the instances which make us who we are now. It could be a lesson from your early life, something a mentor taught you, something you learned, from either a positive or a negative experience. Defining moments have a significant impact and they develop and shape the person you are.
Sometimes it is well worth the while to think back on our defining moments. Just what was it that got us to where we are now and shaped us into the kind of person we are today? Most people, when they think of defining moments in their lives, think of life-shattering events, tragedies, or a blissful day of discovery. Well, my defining moments have been much more subtle, but just as important.
In the third grade, I was one of the back benchers in my class. Science, math could not hold my attention. As Sister Conrad, a nun and my Science Teacher droned on about the number of bones in the human body, I could scarcely keep my eyes from closing. I knew something had to be done! I looked around for a solution. It came in the shape of an Enid Blyton book. It was lying on the top shelf of our class library cupboard. At that moment even an old, tattered book left in our class by a fourth grader looked more interesting than the bone structure drawn on the board. I started reading. …page 1, 2, 3, and on I went…. I did not get caught by Sister Conrad, but I sure was caught hook, line and sinker by the reading bug!! Though I did not repeat that crazy act in my Science class ever again, I continued on this fabulous journey of reading! Because of this passion, I soon started doing better in other subjects as well.
I saw the change this passion for reading made in my attitude towards other subjects. It was a realization that one could do better in studies if one had the passion to read. I soon became a voracious reader; reading everything and anything I could get my hands on. When most of my friends were talking about the movies, discussing hair trends, out playing hop scotch, or aping the 70’s Rock and Roll singers, I had my face buried in a book. I would pick a book, climb up a tree in our backyard; hidden by the thick bushes, and be lost in a world of stories, legends and poems. This bookworm quality I developed as a child helped me in my life. It had opened my mind to different ideas; it had broadened my horizons. It had increased my vocabulary and later in life, moved me in the direction of majoring in English.
The second defining moment came as I followed the course my grandmother, mother, aunts and elder sister took; I became a teacher. Because of this passion for reading, I knew that teaching is not simply a matter of transmitting knowledge; it cannot be reduced to inputs and outputs. Teachers and students were to read, teach and learn together. If this does not happen, the teacher cannot meet each student’s particular needs. So I encouraged children to read, read and read ......and I read along with them!! When these students feel the spell cast by these books, the corridors are hallowed. There is something special here that one would not dream of disturbing!
I have watched my students turn to books whenever they have a moment to spare. I have witnessed them pour over non-fiction books for their project work. I have seen a student, who did not score the most fantastic grade, write a poem that would make one turn around and exclaim, “Did HE write this?!!”
Today I teach in a school that encourages reading and so I know I’m in the right place. I believe that as a teacher, we are important as the torch bearers of ‘school spirit’, and that the aura that surrounds a teacher is a part of the awe inspired by the school.
Yes, these moments have been crystallized in my mind as truly defining moments. These times have defined who I was and later came to be; that I choose to be a teacher; that I am, even at this stage, a learner.