I believe there is a fine line between students and educators. As a reflective practitioner focused on becoming as great as the teachers I admired as a young student, it remains imperative to continue to grow and learn much like we ask of our students. The learning process never ceases in life-long learners, and as educators we need to instill and reinforce that critical growth mindset into our students as well as our peers. Our goal is to approach the students where they are, with empathy and compassion, yet create challenges that push them rigorously to become the best they can and instill the concept of integrity and the pursuit of growth.

When in the learning environment, it is critical to be rigorous yet empathetic. In my teaching with the esteemed Sistema Ravinia program, this has been the crux of my daily approach. Our students come from an underprivileged environment which creates challenges and introduces barriers to our students’ learning. By having one-on-one conversations with our students, it becomes apparent how much emotional baggage some of these students are carrying into the classroom. As a teacher, I work to create a safe space first for our students where they feel comfortable to share and be themselves. After building that trust with our students, we can begin to push them to perform at a high level; only after the basic needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are met.

As a teacher, I look to be the model student; embodying the dispositions and performance skills I ask of our students. I believe the skills of reflection, self-discipline, honesty, and integrity are the most important skills our students can gain, and as a teacher the most effective way to instill those core values is through modeling and promoting self-discovery. Allowing our students to experience high level performance becomes self-fulfilling and sustaining in itself. That success we find in the classroom becomes infectious, helping gain support from staff, parents, administrators, and the community as a whole.

Helping students find their passion as a teacher has and continues to be incredibly rewarding and inspiring. Much like myself when I was a young student, I have seen unbelievable change in troublesome students by helping them find their passion through responsive and reflective teaching. It was music that helped me develop those skills of self-discipline, hard work, grit, integrity, and ultimately helped me find purpose. I have personally seen this change a student’s future over and over again, and I continue to revel in helping students down that same journey themselves.