I’ve known I was going to be a teacher since the fourth grade. I can remember lying on the floor in my fourth grade classroom with my eyes closed, listening to my teacher read a novel to us out loud. Transported into the book, I knew I wanted to do that for other kids–to inspire and encourage students to reach as far and wide as they could, to discover their passions and write about them, of course, and to see them succeed. It took me a while to come into a traditional classroom, but I taught so many kids about horses and riding. Now I have both a traditional classroom, an online classroom, and college courses.  I love being a teacher.

Writing has been a part of my musculature for a long time too. I received this diary,

Note that I crossed out my middle name, Gerard, in my rebellion against having the same middle name as two of my siblings!

complete with a little golden lock and key for my ninth birthday. I wrote in it faithfully, recording my day-to-day doings. From there, I went to blank journals of various kinds and I’ve kept them all. I still have this little piece of my pre-teen self and I laugh at my attempts to be so grown-up. I even wrote a few swear words in it, and I don’t swear much.  I bet I felt very mature writing in such what must have been a risqué mode for me. I’m fairly certain I learned the words from one of my older sisters, Jana, who I dedicated Worthy of Love too! She seemed to know them all very well.

Disclaimer: when I spellchecked my post, it did not include this diary entry made by a little girl only nine years new on this planet.

So, I write and I teach. The great part is that I’m an English teacher which means I get to teach writing. What I love about that is going from the “I hate writing. I can’t write.” to “Ms. G, can you help with this sentence, paragraph, piece?” “Ms. G, can you read this and tell me what you think?” I work with my students in a writing community as best I can. We write together. I share and they share and my hope is that they learn to communicate who and what they are, that they learn to communicate the unique place they come from that is only theirs, that they learn to communicate the amazing thinking they do and that they learn to communicate their ideas for making this world a better place-even if it’s just in their own small community.