Katherine Freeman, “A child’s happiness is more important than that day’s lesson”

By Fran Harris

One of the best things you can do as a teacher is to make any lesson, no matter how boring, fun and entertaining. It’s okay to be goofy. Also, a child’s happiness is more important than that day’s lesson. You can always reteach. Children cannot learn unless they feel they are in a happy, safe environment.

The best moments are when you know a child feels proud and says “I did it.” or “I read that all by myself!” One time a student answered a question correctly and I asked “How did you know that?” She said, “You taught me that last week.” I was shocked. This happened my first year I was teaching at Goshen. It was then that I realized they are listening, learning and that I can make a difference.

There have been a lot of difficult challenges this year, the most obvious being transitioning from in person teaching to remote. There were the technical difficulties but the hardest challenge was to make genuine, strong personal connections with students and parents through a camera.

I continue to be amazed at how resilient the children have been and how supportive the parents are.

I work with many great teachers. I am very proud of my colleagues and feel lucky to be around such amazing people.

My advice for someone considering teaching would be that plans can change at any given moment and that’s okay. Do what is best for the students and don’t get stuck on “your plan” even if you spent hours working on it. You have to be flexible.

When I’m not teaching I spend most of my time with my best friend, my husband, and my family. But...I am in love with my new treadmill.