Strengths as an Educator

Halfway through September with today's TeachThought blog prompt: "Name 3 strengths you have as an educator."

One strength of mine is content knowledge. I am a high school math teacher, but was a pure mathematics major in college, so I had more math classes than education majors. I also teach AP Calculus 1 and 2, so the higher level math is still fresh and relevant. I remember when I first started teaching calculus 5 years ago and I had to reteach myself many of the concepts. Teachers that haven't seen that stuff in a while forget most of it. It's not their fault, it's natural to forget something you don't use regularly, but I feel knowing all of the calculus concepts well helps me teach my college prep classes.

A second strength of mine is my ability to build relationships with the students. I really feel that I get to know more of my students well than the average teacher. I think part of it is my personality and part is how the class is designed. I have been flipping my class for 3.5 years and the format allows for so much more personal interaction with the students because you work mostly one-on-one or in small groups. I also try to communicate with each student's parent/guardian throughout the semester and show up to events/activites that students are involved with like plays, sports, or clubs.

My biggest strength as an educator is my passion for the profession and the students. I truly feel it is the most important job there is, as we prepare kids for all jobs. I am passionate about improving myself and am always looking for new ideas. I think sometimes I try too many things at once and have to back off of one or more good ideas so I can focus on what I think is the best of them. I work as hard as I possibly can to provide what each student needs and consider myself lucky to get paid for doing what I love to do.