Why Teach?

Hola!

I have sat here and debated what to write about for my first (well, not technically first), but my first KSU blogpost. I have so many things swimming around in my head to share with you all, and it has been hard to choose just one to start with. I wrote one already on cell phone use in the classroom, but I think I’ll throw that one on here next week (I know how excited you are!).

Then, I thought about writing about my classroom setup, but I did that last year and almost nothing has changed! You can see a couple ideas here, here, and my entire classroom setup here.

But, seriously, I couldn’t decide on one thing, so I thought I’d start by telling a little bit of my teaching story and how I got here.

My name is Aubrie and I am a fourth-year teacher. I teach high school Spanish and I loooooove it! People either do one of two things when I tell them that I teach Spanish. One is they groan and say, “Oh my GOSH. I hated Spanish in high school.” Two is that they look at me like I’m an alien and ask, “But, you’re not really fluent, right?”

I think it is so sad that people think back on their Spanish experience in high school and have bad feelings or memories. It has been said that by the year 2050, the United States will be the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. I had an absolutely wonderful Spanish experience in high school, and it is part of the reason I do what I do today. I desire so badly to inspire my kids to become bilingual, as they will obviously need it for their future careers.

My high school Spanish teacher and I at her retirement party this summer. She's my inspiration!

I actually never planned to land a job in the city where I teach. The summer before my (first) senior year at K-State, I spent 3 months in Juárez, México building homes with Casas por Cristo. I would say that even though I spent years studying Spanish in the classroom, I was never truly fluent until I lived there. The poverty I saw was horrendous. I saw people living in "houses" made with pallets that people here use for crafts. I saw people living under mattresses and in broken down school buses. But perhaps what most broke my heart was the lack of education for the teenagers living there. Most of them graduate 8th grade and then end up working in factories because they cannot afford to go to high school.

So I came back with the determination to finish college and move back to México. God obviously had some other plans for me. I got engaged to my high school boyfriend Andrew, and we stayed in Kansas so he could finish school. I applied for lots of different jobs, and my school district offered me the job soon after I had interviewed. I was so excited to accept! God is so good to me because I absolutely love where I teach and what I get to do. He knew my heart better than I did or ever will.

Now, instead of working in Mexico, I get to share about poverty in my own classroom and also take students on international trips. You can check those out on my actual classroom website at www.sralehr.weebly.com. If you ever have any questions about traveling with your kids, please, PLEASE ask me! If I had to share my philosophy of teaching, it would be long, but my main points would be these: to teach my kids to love Spanish, to teach my kids to love themselves and love one another, and to show them the world.

I have absolutely loved my job these past three years, and am so stoked to see what year four holds. I am pumped to also get to share my first semester (and maybe beyond) with you all. I plan on writing about everything from technology to creating a classroom website to discipline (eek, that’s a rough area for me), heartbreak and happiness, and whatever else happens along this crazy road that is my teaching journey. I invite you to come along!

Building homes in Mexico, 2010. I still wear this hat and my kids think it is the nerdiest thing ever!