Empowerment

The entry in this section that I felt was the most empowering was entry 142.  The main reason I felt such a strong connection to this entry is because of how it highlights the importance of coaches.  While I was in high school, I definitely felt the strongest bonds with my teachers who were also my coaches.  Connecting with students with interests outside the classroom make them feel closer.  I hope that I can be involved in the athletics program of the school I end up teaching in. 

                This entry also offers an amazing way for students to learn about other cultures: travel.  If it is possible for me to use traveling to enrich the education of my students, I most definitely will.  There is a huge difference between reading about a group of people in a textbook and actually seeing the way they live.  I know that in my experience, I was able to take a school trip to Italy, which made all of the content come alive.

                The final connection I found in this entry come in the form of the coach’s personality.  I also had a coach who is former military (Korean War vet) who seldom cried.  This made it that much more powerful for myself and my teammates when shed tears at our final track meet of senior year.  Our team had become a tight knit family, since the vast majority of our team started running freshmen year and stuck with it throughout high school.