Are You My Teacher?

Long before my birth, God in His infinite wisdom decided that I would teach His children. I was five years old when I began to mimic a teacher.

Born in a two-bedroom house with three siblings, I would play alone in the children’s bedroom with three ragged dolls, a box of broken crayons, and a stack of old torn magazines. I’d talk to my dolls as if they were human. You know how children’s imaginations are. I would tell the dolls to pay attention or ask them if they did their homework. My older sisters and brother would stay out of the room as long as they could to give me an opportunity to teach my students (the dolls). Mother would come into the room on occasions to find me asleep with my dolls, the students.

In kindergarten, my mother would get reports from the teachers that I was taking over the class. I would help the students to recognize their colors and alphabets. Each day when the bus driver picked me up for school, I’d sing songs to him. That was my talent. If I wasn’t teaching, I was singing. I spent most of my time inside of the house playing teacher.

In grade school, teachers would choose me to participate in many of the school programs. I was not shy. I was anxious to show what I could do. I would recite a poem or sing a song. Mother was always in the audience to cheer me on. In third grade, I won the Spelling Bee Contest at my school. It seemed to me that all of my teachers encouraged me to do more than the average student. I knew I was special, but I didn’t really understand what was happening to me at the time. I just knew that I wanted to become a teacher. It was my fifth grade teacher who inspired me the most. She would always encourage me to be the best. I’d stay up at night studying and memorizing assignments to make her proud of me, and she was proud. I will always remember how determined my teacher was for me to win the oratorical contest. She taught me the poem, “Invictus.” She kept me after school for a week so that we could work on speaking skills, and I won! I was so impressed with her high expectations, patience, and dedication to my success in her classroom, that I modeled this for my own classroom when I became a teacher. She was a no-nonsense teacher who only accepted your best. She taught with passion, strength, and confidence. At the end of the year review, I was deeply touched when I heard my mother say to her, “I pray that one day my child will be the teacher that you are.” I never forgot those words nor did I forget my fifth grade teacher. She left a strong and positive impression on me.

In junior high school, I knew that I was destined to become a teacher. I continued to do well and was chosen to be a member of the Student Council and a member of the Future Teachers of America. I continued to earn good grades and was always determined to be one of the best students.

During high school, I was selected as a member of the National Honor Society and that solidified my decision even more to become a teacher. The real excitement was yet to come. In my senior year, I received a full scholarship to a major university. You can only imagine the overwhelming feeling of being the first of seven siblings to have had the opportunity to go to college. My parents were in shock and even a little frightened. They had never experienced this before. Neither of my parents completed high school.