Burwell Public
Burwell, NE
In a school setting I have found as a teacher I am multiple things to a student at the same time; you can be their teacher, but then they see you in the community as a community leader, but then in the end of the day, you were the person that graduated with their mom and dad and now has returned to teach them in the same classroom where you were once a student. The best part of my job is when that student that I taught 10 years ago walks back into my classroom because they still want to come back and see their teacher. Daily a teacher must be the person who build confidence in a student that they never knew they had while having high expectation that are tempered with love, kindness, and respect. The hardest lesson a teacher can teach a student is that failure is OK and it is how we daily bounce back from it that leads to a lifelong grace. As a teacher I may have taught 15 All-Americans in public speaking, but it is seeing that a student has the confidence in themselves to go one step further than they were the day before that is the most meaningful for me, to see growth. As I have grown in my profession in the past two years, I have learned I have to also recharge myself so that I can bring my best self to the classroom.