Pre-service and early career educators are some of our profession’s greatest assets. They have energy, enthusiasm, and excitement as they trace their paths to a career in education. Their voices and experiences deserve amplification and recognition. Here at NYSEC, we are thrilled to feature several pre-service and early career educators’ responses to questions about their hopes and what excites them as the new school year begins. Let’s welcome, celebrate, and support our pre-service and early career educators as they share their stories with us!
“Every child on their journey, from early childhood to high school, deserves to have adults in their lives who are genuinely invested in their well-being and future. Moreover, every child deserves to have adults in their lives who will care about them for the whole-picture of who they are; who will recognize their inherent worth and potential, even when the child may not yet recognize that in themselves. I want to be that adult in students’ lives, and that is what excites me the most about becoming a teacher.
The decision for me to become a teacher was made through the choice of deciding to answer the call and passion I feel to be a safe-place for students to value learning, themselves, and this world. Teachers are provided a very unique and special opportunity to watch students grow, learn, and find themselves. To get to play a small part on their much larger journey, hopefully inspiring more in students than to be good learners, but ultimately, good people, too, is a worthy cause that I am joyful to become a part of.
I want to inspire a true love for learning, and have students understand themselves, their community, and the broader world in a positive, meaningful way. I want them to recognize the power in knowing that they are the future, and that the future can always be bright so long as there are people who can carry some of that light in themselves, and are willing to pass along and share it with others on the way.”
Mallory Colton, SUNY Brockport Graduate Student