As I was following my morning ritual of listening to my Voxer groups on the drive to work, I came across a challenge that started with Jessie Boyce and spread to fellow Voxer members Justin Schleider and Dene Gainey. The challenge…answer the question ‘Why do you love teaching?’ in 100 words, no more no less. Here is my 100 word challenge. A big sorry goes out to all the ELA teachers who will notice that there is a mix of present and past tense. This comes from the fact that I am no longer in the classroom, though I still consider myself a teacher.

Mrs. Holt, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Dyroff…these are the people who inspired me to teach, but I love teaching because of the kids. This sounds like the typical teacher answer, but I truly enjoy young people. I never knew what I would get each and every day that I walked into the classroom; it was never boring! Don’t get me wrong…there were hard days, but there was nothing like the satisfaction of seeing interest, engagement, and understanding from a class of students. Having students come back years later to say that they enjoyed my class also kept me going.

I would highly recommend that you take the challenge. It is not as easy as it looks!

Don Sturm