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Share your story of how you came to be where you are in Christian education. Have you shared this story with your students?
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I’m heading into my third year at a Christian school and never thought I would be here. I started my teaching career in an urban public school. After 4 years and feeling burned out, I was thankful when presented with the opportunity to be a stay at home mom to raise our daughters. Once they started school, I was ready, and eager, to work outside of the home. I had a great part time job at a local running store until Covid hit. All but those employees deemed essential were laid off. After searching for a new job and being faced with difficulty, I went back into the classroom as a substitute teacher and loved it! While I had intended to remain a building sub in our local public school, I came across the job posting for a 6th grade teacher at my current school. I applied and accepted the job two days before new teachers were expected to show up. I know this is where God has guided my family because without the “insider” knowledge I have of our school, we would have been more hesitant to pull our youngest daughter from public school while she was struggling.
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This will be my first year teaching, but I look forward to sharing my story of serving as a missionary in Honduras for 5 years. This enabled me to learn the Spanish language practically and I look forward to now teaching this language.
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I’m a pastor’s wife, and I’ve been teaching in the church context for many years. I’m just beginning to look at teaching in a Christian school, so I’m pursuing certification. As God leads, I’ll share!
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I worked in Public Television for many years. I produced television programs that taught various things for teachers to use in the classroom and for mainstream viewers to watch and enjoy. In 2011, I was laid off when funding changed. I did not know at the time, but in a few months, my mother would be diagnosed with breast cancer. I was able to move in with her and spend time as her caregiver and I worked freelance in media. Nine years later my mother went home to be with the Lord and I was lost. After three months, I reached out to my pastor asking if there was anything I could do at the church to get out of the house. We were just coming out of lockdown due to Covid. The next day, the head of school of our academy, reached out by email. She needed a long-term sub to teach her high school English Lit classes. I immediately said yes. I had taught middle school Sunday morning Bible study, but never English Lit, and never five days a week. I stepped out on faith saying, “God if this is where you want me, this is where I’ll go for as long as you want me to be there.” Last March I celebrated three years of teaching at the academy. I will go back next month and teach English Lit to students in sixth through 12th grades. And I still say, “Where you send me, I will go and for as long as you keep me, I will stay.” I never thought I would become a teacher, but God did. I share that story with my students as an example of God’s provision and plan.
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Teaching is a second career for me. I just finished my second year teaching 6th grade, and prior to that I was a dental hygienist. I was beginning to have back and neck problems and I knew that I would need to find a new career path. I had taught dental hygiene at the university, and I loved teaching. I also had several years of working in pediatric dentistry, and I loved working with kids. Teaching kids seemed like a natural transition. When a teaching position at a local Christian school opened up, I applied and got the job! My daughter has also been going to the school where I have been teaching, and it has been wonderful to be at the same school as her. Although I felt like I was helping people in dentistry, I feel like I am truly carrying out God’s work in teaching. I have shared this story with my students, and I think it’s important for them to know that I have followed God’s calling.
