Heart4kidsadvocacyforum's Blog

What does it take and whom must you be to serve children as their teacher?

You must be intellectually prepared and committed to being a “lifelong learner”, because you understand that “there is always more truth and knowledge” to learn. You must understand that as you continue to learn and enhance your life, that it benefits not only you, but the lives of the children you are serving.

As an educator it is our responsibility to continue to learn and enhance our lives so that we grow in all areas of our life.  Who we are and what we know and have to share with children is a critical part of teaching and mentoring children.  If we have not engaged in activities that provide resources and content for our curriculum for children, then we are limiting and depriving children access to the wealth of knowledge the world has for them.  So many teachers and administrators experience “burn out”, because they resign themselves to believing that they don’t need to go back to school, travel, join interest groups, read for pleasure and challenge themselves to do things that are “out of the box” for them. 

We as educators and parents are role models for children.  If they see us enjoying reading and exploring the world as adventurers, they too want to explore and discover the treasures of the world.  By their very nature, children are curious and fearless.  They want to know the “why” of things!  They want to know how things work!  They need hands on experiences and time to venture into an environmental classroom or their outdoor classroom that provides a wealth of content that is age and cognitively appropriate for their age and or maturity.  We create the content and environments that support children’s growth in all 4 domains of their being.

 I know on a personal note that I committed myself to being a “lifelong learner”.  I pledged to always do things and venture into things that would expand my breath of knowledge about life and the world so that I would continue to be a resource in my writing and advocacy.  It is a major part of our human design to feed our brains and enhance the expressions of our souls.  Children deserve the best of who we are and who we can become so that we can guide them and nurture them in their “Life’s Divine Journey”.

As parents we have the responsibility of developing a relationship with the teachers of our children and supporting them and encouraging them to continue to learn and provide relevant and exciting curriculum for our children.  We can bring in resources for them to explore.  We can help to provide field trips, and I always had parents that formed a little in-house parent support group so that we always had resources beyond what the school offered the children.  Teachers need to know that we as parents are in collaboration with them in guiding, nurturing, and teaching our children.  It has to be a collaboration between home-school- and community.  Who better than the parents to solicit support for our schools than the parents that work and or reside in the school’s community.  Community investment in our schools, results in sustainability of quality of education. 

P.S.

I just want to add that this relationship with parents and their child’s school does not end when the child graduates from elementary school.  We as parents have to stay involved in our kid’s educational institutions from elementary school through high school.  Even when they go off to college, if there are opportunities for you to support your child’s college experience- games, parent events, or artistic events that they are in and you get invited to support them, show up!