The 5 Ways That Being a Military Kid Prepared Me to be a Teacher
There are many ways that I think that being a military child has prepared me to be a teacher. In this post I will be exploring the 5 main reasons that I feel that it prepared me to teach. Hopefully, you will get some teacher inspiration as you see how these things relate to the skills that all teachers need and practice all the time.
Reason #1 It taught me to be FLEXIBLE/ADAPTABLE.
When you grow up in the military things are constantly changing. One day you live in Texas, and then your Dad comes home and tells you that for high school you will be moving to England. My father joined the Air Force when I was only 6 months old and stayed in the military until I was 26. Growing up it was the only life that I knew so it was completely normal to me.
Now you may think that you have never experienced anything like that, but in a way you have. As teachers things are also CONSTANTLY changing. Every year you get a new group of students who are different from any group that you have EVER taught before. Then there are the times that you may have had to move grades or schools and learn a whole new way of teaching. The best way we experience this is how curriculum is constantly evolving and we are told this is the new "best" thing to teach our students. Then a few years later they tell us there is a new magical way to reach students.
Reason #2 It taught me to make FRIENDS.
When you live in 9 different places by the time you are 18 you learn how to make friends easily. Since military kids move so quickly, we tend to bond with each other fast, since we know we may not live somewhere long. Even now when I meet up with a fellow military kid, we can instantly bond with each other and feel like we have known each other forever.
As a teacher this ability has come in handy. Teachers need to bond with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators throughout our career. I believe my upbringing has helped me be able to do this. You may not have been a military kid, but teachers must bond quickly with students and parents. We often spend more time with our students than with our own families. Therefore, it can be so hard to watch our students leave at the end of the year. Our classrooms can be like a little family.
Reason #3 It taught me to do well with ACRONYMS.
This one is kind of silly, but in the military, everything is an acronym. It is a big joke in the military community how many acronyms the soldiers and their families need to know. Even when we move, we say we are PCSing to our new base.
Teaching has tons of acronyms of course too. I will never forget my first year as a teacher sitting in faculty meetings and thinking what in the world do all these acronyms mean? It is funny to listen to teachers talk sometimes when a lot of acronyms are being used. Somehow, we know what is being said.
Reason #4 It taught me to MOVE.
Being in the military is full of moving of course. I never knew that being a teacher was going to be full of so much moving too. I had classroom moves countless times while I was teaching at my first school due to overcrowding issues and renovations. I have also moved grade levels and schools. Also, there is so much packing as a teacher at the end of the year to get our classrooms ready for cleaning or purging out all the things that we have saved. When you move as much as I have you get used to asking yourself if you really need something and if it is worth packing it up and moving it again.
Reason #5 It taught me to LOOK FOR THE POSITIVES.
I have been told a lot in my life "how did you live like that?" or that I had a hard life. My parents are great people and always taught us to look for the positives in every place that we lived. They could make a place feel like home very quickly. I have now lived in the same area of the country since 1997. It has been strange to put down roots. It is great to be teaching in the same district for my whole teaching career. However, I feel blessed that I grew up as a military kid and would not trade my experiences for anything, and how they shaped me into the person and teacher I am today.
Looking for the positives in our teaching lives is so important. Some years we have difficult classes, parents, colleagues, or administrators. These are the times that we must work the hardest at looking for the positives in our job and embrace them.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post and seeing how teaching compares to being a military kid. I look forward to hearing if you can think of other ways that you think the military would connect to teaching. Also, if you were a military kid yourself, I would love to hear your ideas or experiences.
