Teachers: Find Your Ultimate Why

Sometimes you need to take a moment to find your ultimate why.

Let’s talk about why you got into teaching.

Was it because you just love kids? Or maybe you’re super passionate about a certain topic or subject that you teach.

So many teachers go into this profession with optimism and so much hope. And then, when they get into the job and they realize that it’s not just simply about teaching your content to the students.  There’s a whole lot of other stuff that kind of goes on with teacher. 

You may stop to wonder, “Why did I go into teaching in the first place?”

Well, if that’s you, then it’s a great opportunity for you to start actually digging into that question to find your ultimate why: Why do you want to be a teacher? Why are you a teacher?

Doing so can help to motivate you and keep you going so that you can continue to make a difference in your students’ lives.

My name is Elizabeth and I love talking with, and sharing with other teachers who are passionate about teaching, and sometimes struggle from time to time. I love working with them, and helping them to find creative ways to bring learning and teaching to life through arts integration, and SEAL:  Social-Emotional Artistic Learning.

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Why Five Times

Today I have a great activity for you to help you to find your Ultimate Why of Teaching. It’s called “Why Five Times.”

I also have a printout for you to use with this activity. You can grab the link for this freebie in the resources below. It’s called, Find Your Ultimate Why: dig deep and ask yourself why five times.

This is it and here’s what you do:

1. You start at the top by stating what it is you want to do. As a side note, you can also use this for something other than teaching. If there’s something that you really want to do or achieve, you can use this paper for that too.
2. After you put what you want to do at the top, ask yourself five times why do you want that? Each time you get a little bit deeper into what your Ultimate Why is.
3. At the end, you have a very deep, very meaningful reason why it is you want to do what you want to do.

Finding My Ultimate Why:

Okay, so here’s mine. At the top, I state, “I want to teach.”

1. Here’s my first Why: “I want to teach because I love sharing knowledge with others.”
2. Number two. “I want to share knowledge because it allows students to open their minds to new things.”
3. Number three. “I want to open students’ minds because it will help them to see the world in a new light.”
4. Number four. “I want to help them see the world in a new light because students who are open-minded accomplish great things.”
5. And number five. “I want to help students to accomplish great things, because those are the people who will make the world a better place.”

So, my ultimate Why is this: “I want to teach because those are the people who are going to make the world a better place.”

It’s About the Process

Now, just as with various art forms, it is about the process as much as it’s about the product.

There’s something about writing things out that really connects your intellect with your emotion. It’s just like creating a piece of art, or taking in some music, or moving with passion, or acting something out.  But here, you find your ultimate why!

Writing down your five whys in this fashion will really get you thinking deeply about your role as a teacher, and why you do what you do.

For me, this really helped to connect those dots between standing in front of a class, or sitting in front of a screen, and making the world a better place.

Your Turn!

If you want to create your own ultimate Why, go ahead and download this resource, write out your Five Whys, and then let me know in the comments what your Ultimate Why is.

If you like this video, and want to learn more creative strategies to help inspire yourself so that you can be inspiring to your students, be sure to subscribe to the channel and click the bell to be notified when a new video comes out. I can’t wait to see you in the next one.