Why I became a teacher

I have always wanted to be a teacher. I was one of those late bloomers. I was married and had 3 kids before I decided to go to nursing school. At the time I was a pharmacy tech at Emory University Hospital. One of the techs I worked with was an LPN in another state, and she was married to an RN who worked on one of the units at Emory. She decided to go back to school to get her RN in Georgia. I had been taking a few classes trying to decide what I needed to do when she asked me to go to nursing school with her. I had never thought about nursing. Pharmacy took too many years (plus all that chemistry!) and I thought I was too old (I was about 36 at the time) to go to school to be a teacher, so I decided to go to nursing school with her. I could get an associate degree in nursing in 2 yrs (it actually took 36 straight months of school because I had to keep working as a pharmacy tech full time to pay the bills) and work as an RN and one day go back to school to get my BSN (bachelor's in nursing).

My friend dropped out of school the first semester. But I hung in there. I liked healthcare and nursing came easy for me. I think after having 3 kids, you just learn about healthcare whether you want to or not. You have to learn how to do first aid, give meds, take care of ailments, etc., to survive raising kids. So I had real life experience and nursing school helped me to learn more about healthcare, to learn all the necessary skills, and to do it professionally.

As a nurse, I was always involved in education. I enjoyed working with the graduate nurses or new nurses to our hospital. I liked being a preceptor to them. I enjoyed working with student nurses when they came to the hospital for their clinicals. I taught CPR classes, I gave inservices on new equipment, I helped with any kind of classes or education of the staff that was needed. I was the educator for the IV Team. I was (an still am) a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator). For about the last 10-12 years I taught Diabetes Self-Management classes to newly diagnosed diabetes patients.

A position came open at a new high school in Henry County for a HSTE teacher. I applied and got the position. Now I was wondering if I had done the right thing. I knew I wanted to teach and that I enjoyed teaching, but was this the right thing? I had been in healthcare for a long, long time. My first year of teaching was extremely difficult. Teaching was the easy part. The hard part was dealing with the behavior and discipline issues. I did not have a clue about how to do that. All I could think about was if these were my own kids, I would beat their little butts. After that first year I did not renew my contract. I decide to be a school nurse for a while. At least I knew how to do nursing and the behavior and discipline issues would fall to the teachers and administrators. I would just take care of boo-boos and give the ADHD medications.

So, I was a school nurse for about 2 yrs. Then another HSTE position came open at a new school about 5 miles from my house. I missed teaching. And I knew if I took this position I would need to get my certification. (If I thought I was too old to go to school and be a teacher at age 36, what the heck was I thinking now when I was 136??) So I prayed and prayed about what to do. I submitted an application. Within about 10 days I had an interview and was hired. Like so many of you, I truly feel the Good Lord put me where I needed to be. After almost 30 years in healthcare (10 years as a pharmacy tech and 20 years as an RN), I am a teacher. In a few more weeks I will be a full-fledged certified, clear and renewable teacher. HOORAY!

I'm not sure that I will continue to be a HSTE teacher. What I really want to teach one day is Reading. So many of my students cannot read or write on a high school level. And most of these are the very same kids who have the behavior and discipline issues. What a difference being able to read would mean to these kids. And one day, when I get really old and decrepit (I'm almost there! Ha! Ha!), I would like to get involved with adult literacy. I think everyone should have the abilitly to read. Can you imagine a life without reading? Reading is the key to learning. If you can read, you can teach yourself just about anything you want to learn. So one day I will be a reading teacher.