I became a teacher because I discovered the joy of working with children while being a nanny and working at a daycare. One of the older children was having a hard time with their math homework and asked if I could help. When it clicked for him I realized helping students discover how to solve problems was really rewarding. Since then I have done everything I needed to do to become a teacher who is compassionate, helpful, and safe.

While teaching seventh grade math we were on the challenging concept for students to grasp about negative and positive numbers. After differentiating for days on the ways to think about using the numbers we were drawing to show positive and negative relationships, then you could hear the genuine click of my students brain registering the concept and he just stood up and said "Three booms for Ms. Katana, Boom Boom Boom" while doing a sailor arm motion and dance. The class erupted with joy.

Our district just pink slipped a ton of the newer teachers, even those of us who are tenured. I was one of those teachers though I have been working in the district for four years. They have two months to rescind the layoffs so the future is unknown and scary to process while still teaching the rest of this school year. With the money I would take the time to find another job without a financial burden looming over me. Though there is a teacher shortage it is really hard to find jobs.