What keeps you going in terms of your career? Do you ever just wake up and think: Why am I doing this?
There’s this quote about teachers that we love what we do but we hate our job, and I think it’s true to a certain extent. What keeps me going is the excitement in the eyes of students when they finally get something that you’re trying to convey to them, or they use the skills and become better people for it, or they surprise you with their creativity. A lot of the time they point out things that you yourself hadn’t noticed, so it’s a learning process that goes both ways. You’re not the expert here, you're someone who is also exploring the changes in the world, and students are part of that exploration; they are the reason that you keep going. It’s that simple.
What’s one incident in your life that made you a stronger teacher/person?
I’d have to say it’s the times you…I don’t want to say fail, but fall. Really, it’s all those times when you make a decision that you realize later on wasn’t the right decision to make at the time, but it becomes a learning process. So, because you made that mistake, it has taught you how to make a better decision next time, and it humbles you.
Interview With a Teacher
Interviewer: Sara Arafah
Interviewee: Ms. Dalal Hammoudeh