Finals Week - Spoken Word by Stefan Vandenkooy from Daniel Robinson on Vimeo.
This week I wanted to share this video. I think it has a really good message. It says a lot about the values of our current society, as well as teaching. In class we have been talking a lot about teaching for understanding. I think this video calls us out as college students for doing the very thing we want to avoid our students doing. Instead of just memorizing to get a grade, to pass a class, to get a degree we should be absorbing everything. Our education now is what is going to prepare us for the hard decisions and situations we face in the classroom. Another key message I love about this video is it hits home talking about the self centered society we live in. As teachers our jobs our to help others. I know personally if I were going to school for a job that would make me rich, I wouldn't have chosen teaching. I chose teaching because I want to impact others. I want to make a different in each of my students lives. I want to invest in students the way  my coach and teachers invested in me. Even though it's not finals week, I constantly find myself being too busy to invest in others. I should be taking time to be pouring into my friends lives and getting to hear about their struggles. I think that maybe taking time to get experience and knowledge of the way other people live and invest in them would help prepare me to be in a classroom. Every individual in a classroom brings in their own story and influences. Being able to relate and understand students and their life situations will make me a better teacher. Investing in people now when I am busy will help me be able to invest in my students later when I have five thousand papers to grade and lesson planning to do.