This artifact focuses on my own personal experiences leading up to the time which I became a teacher nearly ten years ago. Highlighting many aspects of Chambers’ (2004) article “Research that Matters: Finding a Path with Heart,” this work could arguably fit any of the three artifact types included in this portfolio.
Delving into the “why” of my becoming a teacher and the process of continuing to strive to become a more effective, well-rounded educator, one focus that stuck out for me was the idea of the “learning pit,” which demonstrated that enjoyment and the accompanying struggle to complete challenging tasks can not simply be reduced to pre-intentional moments of “completeness,” but rather a component of a larger perception of the inherited benefit of a particular task. (Sik, 2023)
Secondly, this work touches upon the idea of “care theory.” Within it, as brought forward by Schat, (2023) all human beings, and particularly educators, have two care-related needs: the need to receive care, and the need to offer care for others. This is significant for myself, as the concept of care is the backbone of why I became a teacher in the first place.
