Earlier I wrote how the Jamming Gem brand got started, but it has evolved into 3 pillars. Beauty, Education, and Coaching. I realized that I have so much to offer but it all falls into a different category. It was difficult for me to decide on just one thing so I created all three! You heard most of my beauty story, but why education?
Every day, and that sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I really am not. Students would come to me and say, "I hate school." UGH gut punch! I would do my best to reassure them, but it still felt off. When I was out and about, the main question that came up in conversation was, 'what do you do?' Well, I am a teacher.... "OH, I hated school!" Gut punch again.
This would break my heart over and over and over again. I got to the point where I didn't even like telling people I was a teacher because all the negative emotions they felt or were feeling about school would come up. Let's not even mention that I am a "Special Education Teacher" so that put me in the category of... Bless her heart she has patience, she must be an angel. Now I might be triggering you right now because this might sound like I didn't appreciate the compliments. The intentions of every person, child or adult, were never (I hope), ILL intentions. They were all meant to be sweet gestures. But the contradiction of wow you must have patience you're an angel, and I hate school, was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking because somewhere in their journey of education, someone hurt them and there was never a chance to heal from that. I rarely find anyone who says, "I love school!!" But I was that person, I absolutely loved school. I hated parts of school, but I loved learning. So now fast forward to here and now. My passion for learning and education is so abundant that I want to share with others and help change the mindset of "I hate school" to "I love learning".
Here is another short story. When I was teaching a lot of times, I was told that I don't teach, and I just play games in my room. If you talk to a fellow special education teacher, they probably have a similar story to this. It would always be so frustrating to have to defend myself when it came to "games" in my room. But let me ask you, would you rather play a game or do a worksheet? Now there is "abuse" when it comes to over playing games in a classroom, but if you can make learning more fun would you rather do that?
Insert Jamming Gem Brand here. Learning is fun, learning is natural, learning should be play or discovery based depending on the level your child is at. When we are given the chance to discover, be curious, ask questions, involve ourselves in the learning process, play... we are more likely to retain, understand, comprehend, and eventually master a skill. Will you never do worksheets? Will you never do anything hard when it comes to education? No... but you can build up to it with more manageable tasks that are "fun" so that when it comes to the hard stuff, you are ACTUALLY prepared and, wait for it, you might actually WANT to do it and LOVE it at the same time.
To master the unknown, you must teach it first. Master your learning.
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