Liza D.

I attribute my success to changing my mindset about myself and believing that I could achieve things academically. I didn't start out seeing myself as an academic. In high school, I didn't get straight A's, and I didn't see myself becoming a teacher when I was in my bachelor's program. But when I was working at an aftercare program in college, I realized I had a different bond with the kids and felt drawn to teach them in a way that was different from the other counselors who went on to be nurses or other professions. That's when I started to think about myself as an academic and asked myself, what would happen if I really applied myself? If I really did the work and had that growth mindset? From then on, it stuck with me to look for students like me who have potential but just don't see themselves that way. That's been a driving force - helping other students see themselves as academics the way I learned to see myself. I hear my college students say things like 'I'm not very good at this' or 'I'm not a good writer,' and I tell them, let's get you some resources and change that, because you can do this. Being that mentor and having that belief that I can achieve things has been my biggest achievement.

Teaching is an amazing profession that requires us to be vulnerable a little bit with our students and to see our students as capable. We need to create classrooms where students are seen and feel that we care about them, and when that happens, it makes them make us feel seen too. I feel like teaching is circular - what we give, we get back. Everything that you pour into your students, they pour into you. They come right back and say how special you are, how wonderful you are. It's this beautiful unfolding of learning and growing together. That has been the highlight of my career - not just what my students have learned, but what I have learned. So I would tell new teachers to be open to that, be open to not always getting it right, not always being perfect, but that's okay because students don't have to be perfect and neither do you. You're going to get these moments that you don't even realize, like when my fourth grade class formed a group hug around me when my grandma was sick and I started to cry. Those are the moments where you realize the impact you're making.