Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of one day becoming a teacher. I never thought I would be anything else. Once I started college, I immediately declared my major as Education.
My Field Work experience further enforced my desire for teaching. I was assigned to Peters Elementary, a school that is about five minutes away from my house. The classroom I was assigned to was an ESAL class consisting of second and third graders. At first, I was upset. I don't speak Spanish. How would I communicate with these kids? I soon learned that our language differences were a very small barrier to climb. I used the small amount of Spanish I remember from school to speak to them, and they pointed at things they didn't know how to say in English. My first day in the classroom, the teacher taught me that as human beings, we all spoke the same language.
I immediately could see that this teacher was both loved and respected by the children. They listened to her carefully when she spoke, and they hugged her when she helped them with their work. I would consider myself lucky to be loved and respected by my students when I become a teacher. The thing that stood out the most to me about the teacher I observed was her never-ending patience with the children. I found myself getting a little frustrated with them when I would try to explain something over and over again to them, and they still did not understand. But Mrs. Posheluk never got annoyed with them. Or maybe she did, but she never let it show. She simply explained to them the concepts in a different way.
-- Erica McKinley, Florida Atlantic University