Purpose

We should have met this weekend for a Thrive burst session … face to face in Harare… coffee and cake. Educators sharing our lives, our recent stories and reflections of our teaching journeys. To keep our connections alive I decided to write something for us to share and ponder together.

Reflection question: Why did you go into teaching

My answer: I went into teaching because I wanted to have more impact and input into people’s lives than sitting behind a desk allowed me. I wanted to know that my daily efforts would bring good to others. I wanted to go on a journey with people. I wanted to feel that I was building community.

What’s your answer to this question? I think in answering it, you will rediscover your purpose and in these uncertain times it is easy to lose our sense of purpose and feel discouraged and overwhelmed. When we know our purpose we are able to withstand a great deal more than if we are unsure of the why of what we are doing. When we are fulfilling our purpose that’s when we truly come alive.

There is stuff we inherit along our life journey, like threads in our tapestry so to speak. Some threads are beautiful and bold, others are frayed or have knots pulled in them. Even in the purity of knowing our purpose and reflecting back to our personal why of teaching we can easily be tripped up be things that come to distract us and frustrate us. Many of the frustrations come from our own perfectionism, or are inherited from our heads of department or our school Admin. Or quite possibly from navigating through the unknown territory of a global pandemic. It is a hard and courageous but incredibly necessary thing to take an audit of our current situations and evaluate if there is anything that is clouding our sense of original purpose and stopping our souls from thriving.

Reflection Questions – What are some of the things that frustrate you or make you forget your purpose right now? What can you do to remove these triggers and keep your passion alive? Think microsteps.

One of my most liberating moments in teaching was to realise that my worth as a teacher was not measured by how much homework I gave or how many books I marked but on how the children in my class learned and had time in their life to be children.

Reflection Question – what is one thing you have tried or would like to try that goes against the majority but you really feel it is worth the risk?

The other day, my sister reminded me that children learn by asking questions – less so by answering them. So I decided to put myself at the mercy of my 15 year old Geography students and each came up with 3 test questions on the current topic we were studying for me to answer as an assessment of how much they knew. It was a pleasing experience for everyone, although I must admit my brain was fried.

I’d love to hear your responses to the reflection questions. Feel free to whatsapp them or put them in the comments place below. We all learn from each other’s braveness.

Let’s teach and thrive.