I am a teacher

This morning, I sat in front of my 21 students and taught a literacy lesson. With Tillie being gone, it was my first day in charge. As I did the literacy lesson, a quote that I have heard numerous times in my classes at Westminster popped into my head...


I have come to a frightening conclusion.

I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.

-Dr. Haim Ginott

I'm at a point where I have the opportunity to take everything I've learned; all of my life experiences, all the knowledge I gained from my EDUC classes at Westminster, and apply it to Dr. Haim's quote. 

Today, for the first time, I truly felt like a teacher.