My Periodic Table of Elements

In the past year I composited a “list” of what has been, continues to be, and will be meaningful in my development as an educator. I soon found I had a long list that needed to be classified in a manner that was meaningful to me. As a chemist I followed in the footsteps of Russian chemist and inventor, Dmitri Mendeleev. I adapted his Periodic Table of Elements to a Table of Elements of my identity as an educator. Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Elements is a tabular organization of the chemical elements (categorized partly by their chemical properties). There are 18 columns (groups) and 7 rows; the elements in groups share similar properties. Similarly to the Periodic Table some of my groups have been given names: Culture (Group 1), Religion (Group 2), Activities (Group 16), Family (Group 17).

Each of these groups contain various elements of my life that are meaningful to my evolving identity as an educator. Like the elements on the Periodic Table each of my elements has a unique story behind it. Rather than sharing all of these stories with you here I will highlight a few of the more important ones.  Element M (found in Group 17) is the identity symbol for my mom who has undoubtedly been the biggest underlying factor in my decision to become an educator. That is, my chemistry 12 teacher may have sped up development but my mom was already moving me in that direction as a result of her many selfless acts (e.g. staying up late at night to help me finish my homework and school projects) and various sacrifices (e.g. she became a stay at home mom to take care of my brother and me). Because of her I began to develop at a young age a strong desire to help others, to put their needs ahead of my own.

In the Periodic Table of Elements groups 3-12 represent the transition metals, in my Table they represent all the educational elements of my life. For example, element S (found in group 4) symbolizes Ms. Smith, my Chemistry 12 teacher who I have already talked about and in group 3 you will find element Y the symbol for my high school and where I did my practicum. Throughout my Table there are many blank spaces; these are meant to represent the elements of my identity that have yet to be discovered. As educators I believe it is important that we never stop growing; I feel the moment we do will be the moment that we begin to lose our identity as educators.

While many of my friends during my undergrad years went on to do graduate work in Chemistry I had little desire to join them at that point. My desire for wanting to help others and my love for working with kids of all ages was too strong.