Kids learning how to print in English-speaking schools use the dashed line to indicate where letters like a, c, e, etc. should rise up to. However, I would write my lower case letters specifically shy of the dashed line, since many people did anyways. 

Was I doing it to spite her? No. While I was praised outside of the classroom for a style of handwriting that was seen as more mature (and was distinctly neat and very readable), Mrs. V took this as a personal decision to disobey what she had requested. She refused to see it from a child's perspective of trying to go above and beyond expectations. 

This wasn't the only time I was sent into the quad (a room attached to various classrooms that acted like a multi-purpose storage area and hallway). But it and many others stood out to me as a the definition of what a bad teacher was to me: an adult who could no longer empathize with their students.

It might seem like splitting hairs to some, specifically to point out out-of-character moments to prove a point, but this was standard for Mrs. V. I wasn't the only one to experience this kind of treatment.

Fast forward to 6th grade, and I had a fantastic teacher. Mr. T was known for creating  or collecting educational songs to help us stay focused, engage with the material in a way that created different memories, and add some fun into an otherwise stressful time. In my area, this was the last year of elementary school. 

He would become the epitome of what a teacher should be; constantly developing one's skills, experimenting with different styles, and focused on supporting students' personal interests & paths.

In university, I began taking Japanese classes as my foreign language requirement. While I'd been interested in it before, taking university-level classes in high school was not allowed in my household. Which is to say that I was more than excited to try!

Throughout the lessons, my friends & I showed promise as students. We'd also mentioned to our professor, Mr. TK, that we wanted to become teachers. I was considering becoming an English teacher, spurred on by my love of reading & writing & my desire to help students learn how to express themselves. 

Mr. TK suggested we look into teaching abroad as avenues to test it out and experience Japan long-term. Needless to say, out of my 5-person friend group, 3 of us ended up teaching in Japan for more than 5 years, each! (And I've also taught for 1 year in Seoul, South Korea.)

It was a good choice, as teaching has now become my main goal. On CafeTalk I teach communication focused English courses, focusing on building conversational skills. In the age of AI, with rising methods of translating or transliterating the things we write and read, it is more important than ever to be able to speak in a language we want to communicate. And English is still one of the most spoken languages around the world, often as the second- or foreign-language in schools.

In other corners of the internet, I focus on supporting artists' drawing routines to purposefully build healthy & effective habits. But that's more of a hobby. ;)

No matter what, I became a teacher through love of English, of the conversations I had with other people, with reading things that inspired me, and by analyzing what I thought a good & bad teacher looked like. Hopefully, I continue to be a teacher able to empathize with my students, learn from my own past mistakes & successes, and develop my skills with a focus on my students' experiences.

(The photograph is from my work at a local university, showing off how many students' graduation regalia we were receiving into the office on a daily basis. The bottom of this stack is on the floor. I am about 165 cm tall, and we got a second delivery in later that afternoon!)