Aspects of my vocation as a Catholic educator

God certainly blessed me with the call to be an Catholic educator! I always knew that was my vocation and I never questioned the choice. After many, many, happy, fulfilling years as a teacher I still look forward to the first day of school and feel a bit melancholy (and tired :) on the last day. I feel so fortunate to be in a Catholic school setting because I have the honor of teaching the WHOLE person. Starting the day with prayer is as natural as breathing and connects us with God and each other. Once the recognition that we (students and faculty) make up the Body of Christ community is built and the intellectual components of education are easier to facilitate. I take seriously the fact that I spend 7 hours a day for 180 days with my students therefore, I have a huge impact on their day...I can either make it better or worse. I try to model acceptance, kindness, respect and honesty to my students because I know that we all have a trickle effect on each other and we want to trickle goodness. We look for "God moments" daily until it becomes part of our vocabulary. My students see less and less coincidences and more of the movement of God in their lives. I feel strongly that a Christ centered environment must be created and facilitated for effective teaching to happen to the "whole" child. In conclusion, teaching in a Catholic school strengthens my faith, gives me the opportunity to share and perhaps convert a lost soul and basically makes me a better person!