To Love To Teach Is teach to love

1. To Love To Teach Is teach to love

2. Interview Questions • What grade levels do you teach? • How many Years have you been teaching for? • What population of students do you work with? • What made you want to become a teacher? • What are the most rewarding parts of your job? • What are the most challenging parts of your job? • How do you stay motivated to keep moving forward with your job? What helps you stay motivated?

3. Tomas Salinas • Age 24 • 1st year • English High School Freshman • Low income community • Mainly Hispanic population

4. TeressaDipierna • Cross country Coach • Adaptive PE teacher • Special needs Population • Nine years

5. Alfonso Salinas • 8th grade math, MESA, 8th grade science in Spanish, PE, Math intervention class • 80 percent Latino and 20 percent White • Low performance school • 21 Years teaching • Age 47

6. Personal Quotes • The most rewarding part is when kids learn, they feel good about themselves. It lets you know that you’re helping them be a better person. • Everyone regardless of where they are definitely has a purpose. And I think even if a kid cant communicate, cant function like a lot of typical kids can, it’s a gift to have them with us and how they affect people.

7. Personal Quotes • “There’s usually a few kids that pass away every year and that’s the most difficult because you have this amazing connection with the child and with the family and sometimes you’ve seen them decline over the years” (Teressa). “I understood math and I wanted to share that with the world because finding good math teachers is hard” (Salinas) • it's the excitement that keeps you going; it's the joy of the smell of the air when you walk into the building in August; it's the excitement of meeting new kids and having to leam their names; it's the excitement of knowing that there's going to be at least one child that you're going to have some sort of connection with that year that they may never have with anyone else, but you're the one who makes their life different. Without you there, they may never have anyone, but you may be the person that helps them to see beyond their capabilities and limitations.

8. Surprises and insights • Teachers are constantly learning and preparing • Teachers have lives outside of the classroom and are regular people • Teachers are constantly writing and doing work outside of the classroom • Teachers have to a lot of prep work and parent and student meetings • There is more work to teaching than people think and its a lot harder than people think as well • Have to teach content and love what you teach. Have to transmit that to the kids so that they feel motivated • Have to connect with their students on a personal level

9. Surprises and insights • There is more work to teaching than people think and its a lot harder than people think as well • Have to teach content and love what you teach. Have to transmit that to the kids so that they feel motivated • Have to connect with their students on a personal level • Once you get a rhythm going it becomes easier although it’s still hard work, it becomes easier to and some days its easier than others

10. Articles Read + CITATION • References Major, A. (2012). Job Design for Special Education Teachers. Current Issues In Education, 15(2), 1-8 • References Phelps, P., & Benson, T. (2012). Teachers With a Passion for the Profession. Action In Teacher Education, 34(1), 65-76.

11. Inspiring video: The life of a teacher • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9RDfv5OAZQ

13. My Findings • Love is what keeps all these teachers going and keeps them from burning out • And finding a stress reliever is always important to prevent teacher burnout • Teaching is not only teaching content but making connections with the students on a personal level and inspiring learning as well as trying to make an impact in their lives so that they can grow to be better people