"It's not about you." These words were written in bold black ink on white paper and taped to my desk in the office I used to do my work. It was left there by my former supervisor who used to say these words to me on days that I felt I was at my end working with kids. I never really thought about what these words meant until one day, a student came up to me and said, "Thank you." I told him it was no problem and started our day. My class had decided they wanted to throw a pizza party before they went on their winter vacation and each child was supposed to bring in $2 for their share of pizza. By the time I was done collecting, I noticed one student who didn't bring in his money yet. I asked him why and he told me his family just couldn't afford it so he didn't want to bother asking his mom for the money. Later that day, I took him aside and asked him if he would take some papers home to separate and staple, which would help me out a lot because I was swamped with work and I would pay him $2 if he could. He knew what I was up to and with a smile he agreed to it.

Many occupations require extensive background knowledge on the subject; they require the skills necessary to perform the task. Skills help you perform your task, but a good heart and the passion for what you do will help you do it well. In my opinion, many people who enter the field of education do not enter with the necessary skills to do their job, but what they do have is the passion to teach and the heart to touch the lives of children. Skills can be learned, with time and practice, many teachers learn to use behavior management and classroom management skills. They can become experts in time and conflict management and they may even become well verse in planning and organization. But teaching goes beyond these necessary skills of our day-to-day routine and requires us to become a friend, mentor, and most importantly, a role model.

I believe in the old adage: It takes a community to raise a child. Many children need consistency in their lives, consistency at school, when they get home, and in their community. This consistency only happens when there is communication between these three important aspects of a child's life. It is our responsibility to keep the lines of communication open with parents at home to let them know what and how their child is doing. We not only need to inform parents, but we ourselves need to be informed. Sonia Nieto suggests that we cannot know the child unless we know where the child comes from; this includes their family life, community, and personal attributes. Just as others cannot judge who we are by first impressions, teachers cannot judge their students only by their interactions in the classroom. A child is like a puzzle, all the pieces has to come together to give us a clear picture of who they truly are.

We all come from different backgrounds, the classroom is a place where these differences come together to become a community of learners. No matter the ethnicity, the religion, or the race of your students, each child should be given the same opportunities as everyone else. A character trait, which I hope to instill in my future students, is respect. Our skin colors, the texture of our hair, and the accents we possess should not make us any less than anyone else; this is all part of our culture and heritage and should be valued not only by ourselves, but the people around us. Marilyn Gootman recommends that we teach students to listen to one another and only through this listening that children can develop empathy for others. When children develop empathy, they are able to learn and understand another's culture and background. I truly believe that as educators, we should not only teach the core curriculum, but also, life skills. We should teach children about basic human relationships which can foster positive interpersonal interaction among students and develop a strong sense of self-concept. Not only do we need to teach these life skills, we need to practice them ourselves. We should hold high expectations for our class and for ourselves. We need to make an effort to introduce different cultural backgrounds, incorporate diversity into our curriculum, and display evidence through projects produced in the classroom. We should instill the idea that students, no mater what their cultural background is, have the same opportunities and deserve the same respect as anyone else.

I believe the backbone of all this is to teach students to be self motivated and encourage youth development in the classroom, which they can take with them to any situation. Youth development is to empower our students to make decisions and solve problems with little to no help from an adult. When a teacher empowers a student to take action, students develop a sense of ownership for their surroundings and their actions, in turn, develops a strong sense of self. Student will learn to take pride in their classroom and the work they produce because they feel they had a hand in what they learned. Children are not passive sponges soaking up information we feed to them, but they are active in choosing what and how they want to learn. As a teacher I will foster this quality I see in each of my students.

It's not about me, it's about them. Each face that walks though my classroom door, each child that asks for help, especially the ones that don't. Being a teacher is not what you chose to be, it's who you are. Some people are lucky to be able to choose their profession, I, on the other hand, am blessed to not have to choose, but already know. I know that as much as I am doing this for self-satisfaction, I do it because of the innocence in each child and the possibility of what they can become if someone in their life gives them an opportunity. It's not about me, it never was and it never will be.