Why did you decide to become a teacher?
My father was my 4th to 8th grade teacher in a one-room-school house in Arizona. It was there that I fell in love with helping younger students to learn and experienced deep learning - the type where dad would make me seek out answers in books rather than simply tell me what I wanted to know.
Your best moment as a teacher?
It was September 2012 when AAM celebrated the International Day of Peace. As our students lined our hallways, holding lit candles and lanterns, I wanted to capture the united, deep, sweet-desire-for-peace moment and release it to blanket the world.
Your worst moment?
When a fire broke out in the kitchen below my classroom during my first year of teaching, I observed how scared people push and shove others down when they face smoky halls. I vowed then to take safety drills very seriously for the rest of my career - which I have!
One sentence of advice to parents?
Make sure your children are in school, on time, every single day that school is in session because YES... something important is happening EVERY day.
One sentence of advice to someone wanting to enter the profession?
Expect success from every child you teach because students rise to whatever level of expectation you hold for them.
What would be your life quote?
If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.
Cheryl Hall teaches at the American Academy in Al-Mizhar.
Source: Connector, May 2016