What Brings me to Teaching
At a very young age, I wanted to hold every baby and play with every kid there was in the world. My grandma used to babysit and I was so excited to have babies and toddlers to my house. I was the youngest of three, and often very lonely; maybe that is why I loved having other children over. I remember constantly asking my mom if she could get pregnant just so we could have another baby in the family. She usually laughed at my face and told me three was enough. At the age of seven, I knew I wanted to do a profession that had something to do with children (despite me being a child at the age as well). As time went on, I remember playing the “teacher game” and teaching the toddlers my grandma babysat A, B, Cs. It was a passion, that I was aware of a very young age. As time went on, I volunteered to teach religious classes in my masjid. At 16, I had my own classroom and I was teaching second graders about Islam. I was making lesson plans with other teachers. It was a learning process and I loved every second of it. Fast forward to twenty-two, it has been seven years, and I still volunteer to teach religious education class and I still love it. I love the interactions I have with my students, the history I get to teach about Islam, and creating lesson plans. My religion and my grandma were the reason how I found a passion for teaching.
“It’s 3 AM, what are you doing up? You have school tomorrow!” My mom often screamed this line to me MULTIPLES times. I was in seventh grade, and what would a seventh grader do at 3 AM? You might guess I might be texting or watching TV but in reality, I was reading books. Some parents would push their children to go to the library, while my parents would avoid it like the plague. I scared my parents by the amounts of books I would check out, and not being able to put the book down. If I had to shower, I would take my book with me. No one could take my love for reading. Still to this day, once I am hooked on a book I don't stop reading. It has affected my sleep and sometimes would affect my education. But, books are the reason why I chose to be a history major. I always loved history because history felt like a big story, and I loved stories. Stories are what I lived for, and love learning and reading them. Stories are the reason why I chose history as a major to teach.
Growing up, I really enjoyed being around being around youth. I started working with ninth graders, and tenth graders in different youth programs and started mentoring them. Soon, I realized that many adolescents need a emotional support than younger students. Many of these students, have so much potential and are so intelligent but due to different circumstances, they are not able to see that, which is heartbreaking. My goal as an educator is that I want them to see that they are capable of anything if they put their mind to it. Even as a resident assistant, I enjoy working with incoming freshman. I fell in love with working with the older students and realize I wanted to teach secondary because of the connections I made while mentoring and spending time with them. My passion for history, working with children is the reason why I want to teach.
At a very young age, I wanted to hold every baby and play with every kid there was in the world. My grandma used to babysit and I was so excited to have babies and toddlers to my house. I was the youngest of three, and often very lonely; maybe that is why I loved having other children over. I remember constantly asking my mom if she could get pregnant just so we could have another baby in the family. She usually laughed at my face and told me three was enough. At the age of seven, I knew I wanted to do a profession that had something to do with children (despite me being a child at the age as well). As time went on, I remember playing the “teacher game” and teaching the toddlers my grandma babysat A, B, Cs. It was a passion, that I was aware of a very young age. As time went on, I volunteered to teach religious classes in my masjid. At 16, I had my own classroom and I was teaching second graders about Islam. I was making lesson plans with other teachers. It was a learning process and I loved every second of it. Fast forward to twenty-two, it has been seven years, and I still volunteer to teach religious education class and I still love it. I love the interactions I have with my students, the history I get to teach about Islam, and creating lesson plans. My religion and my grandma were the reason how I found a passion for teaching.
“It’s 3 AM, what are you doing up? You have school tomorrow!” My mom often screamed this line to me MULTIPLES times. I was in seventh grade, and what would a seventh grader do at 3 AM? You might guess I might be texting or watching TV but in reality, I was reading books. Some parents would push their children to go to the library, while my parents would avoid it like the plague. I scared my parents by the amounts of books I would check out, and not being able to put the book down. If I had to shower, I would take my book with me. No one could take my love for reading. Still to this day, once I am hooked on a book I don't stop reading. It has affected my sleep and sometimes would affect my education. But, books are the reason why I chose to be a history major. I always loved history because history felt like a big story, and I loved stories. Stories are what I lived for, and love learning and reading them. Stories are the reason why I chose history as a major to teach.
Growing up, I really enjoyed being around being around youth. I started working with ninth graders, and tenth graders in different youth programs and started mentoring them. Soon, I realized that many adolescents need a emotional support than younger students. Many of these students, have so much potential and are so intelligent but due to different circumstances, they are not able to see that, which is heartbreaking. My goal as an educator is that I want them to see that they are capable of anything if they put their mind to it. Even as a resident assistant, I enjoy working with incoming freshman. I fell in love with working with the older students and realize I wanted to teach secondary because of the connections I made while mentoring and spending time with them. My passion for history, working with children is the reason why I want to teach.
Hello Zahra - thank you for sharing your story. Your passion for reading is seemingly so strong that it leaps off the screen! Your students will really benefit from you talking to them about what exactly it is that you love about reading and how it affects you personally.
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