Why Teaching?

Teaching wasn't my first choice of career. Ever since the 8th grade, I've always wanted to become an engineer. In school, I mostly focused on math, physics and chemistry, not entertaining the idea of any other path.

When the pandemic started affecting schools in 2020, I ended up working as a lifeguard and a swim instructor more often. Due to the changes we had to make to limit contact between the swim instructors and their students, instructors were now no longer allowed to help their students physically unless the student found themselves in a dire situation where assistance is required. Parents were then told they had to participate in lessons if their children were in levels that still required a great amount of assistance from the instructor. I, being one of the instructors that mostly taught younger students at a level where extra assistance is not optional but a must, had to get creative in delivering my lessons. This mainly meant I had to adapt to the fact that I now not only had to help young children learn how to go from being scared of jumping into the water to swimming on their own by use of oral communication and demonstrations only, but I had to instruct parents on how to assist their children in doing the task as well.

One particular lesson I taught was a beginner's lesson with a 7-year-old. They were able to meet most of the requirements for their level. However, they had tremendous difficulty being able to float on their back and front without assistance for the required amount of time. After spending a good portion of our lessons every week on floats, they were able to float on their front and back over the required amount of time needed to pass the level. These weeks were nothing if not challenging: I had to find various ways of explaining it, breaking down microscopic step by microscopic step the movements they had to make, creating different activities to teach the task to them, instructing the parent on various holds they can use to ease the student's anxiety, using a variety of flotation devices, and finally asking my colleagues and superiors if they had any tips on how to teach it to them that I hadn't thought of. In the end, this experience was worth it. The smile and excitement on the student's face as they accomplished something that took tremendous effort will always stay with me.

That student is what made me want to become a teacher. The joy and excitement young learners express when they are able to overcome even the smallest of hurdles. To us, it may be only a minor accomplishment but to those in the process of learning skills we already possess, even a small pebble can appear as a boulder preventing them from continuing to venture down the path of learning. I want to be able to help students accomplish these tasks and become a part of the process required to overcome them.