What motivates me in my work is not the nature of the work itself, but rather the culture of the work environment. I believe if I am in a work environment which facilitates growth and success, I have found meaningful work.
I always knew I wanted to become a teacher. Growing up I “played school” and I have always loved helping people. As I grew older and began considering my career goals and eventually selecting a career path, I realized it was important to me to be able to help people in my profession and to be able to serve a greater purpose. I ultimately completed a teaching program and started my first teaching job.
Once I began teaching, my dreams were abruptly shattered. I quickly realized the work I dreamed I would be doing was not the reality of the teaching world. Instead of focusing on being able to teach my students and plan lessons, I felt I was being suffocated with professional development meetings and trainings. The meetings were often centered around analyzing student performance and determining what more I, the teacher, should have done to improve student performance, regardless of the personal and developmental circumstances of individual children. I did not feel my efforts to promote student success were acknowledged.
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A group of educational higher-ups (who were most likely separated from the classroom for several years) determined teacher evaluations were not rigorous enough. New evaluation criteria dictated that teachers would not only face classroom observations from the school administration, but also they would create a portfolio of artifacts documenting their efforts to teach to certain standards. Following the observations and portfolios, the teacher would be assigned a numbered rating on his or her