I Touch the Future....I TEACH!

Christa McAuliffe once coined the phrase, "I touch the future, I teach." I can remember being a seventh grade student in the Science class of a Mr. Paul Eckhart when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in January of 1986. Sitting at our lab tables, watching the monumental voyage of a teacher in space, and then the catastrophic explosion is a memory that will never be erased from my mind. I have chosen to adopt this quote as my teaching philosophy. I was a graduate of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, with a BS in Education. I think I have finally found my place in the teaching world. And to think, it only took me five years to find it!!!!! I have taken a job as a teacher at KidsPeace, a National Facility for Kids Overcoming Crisis. It is very similar to the Alternative Education I taught several years ago. I have never felt such a strong devotion to my job, as I do going to work anymore! I thoroughly enjoy teaching the unteachable, the unlovable. As my mom has said, this is definitely what I was meant to be doing with my life. I have a knack for reaching these kids, and I do it with such passion. I can not think of any other thing I would rather do with my life. Public school teaching...NO WAY!!!! Give me KidsPeace and I am happy! Teaching is something I can put my whole heart into and feel as though I got something back. There is nothing I would rather do with my life. I also attribute my love for teaching to growing up with one of Whitehall-Coplay School District's finest teachers, Mr. Lester "Butch" Everett, my dad. I also look with great favor upon the following teachers who have impacted my life in such a profound manner that I could not leave them unmentioned: Mrs. Debbie Hard, Ms. Victoria Cerulli, Mrs. Marian Hoffner, Mrs. Audrey Larvey, Dr. Thomas Gilligan, Mr. Ronald Yeager, Mrs. Bonnie Tavella, Professor Douglas Fries, Dr. Charles Roth, Dr. Elizabeth Liddicoat, Dr. Patricia Guth, Dr. Sally Knappenberger, and Dr. RobertDornish. I sincerely thank each of them for being an inspiration for me in my professional endeavors.