educator

Note to Self:

Stop referring to yourself as "an educator."  It sounds elitist and feels distant from the daily reality of your classroom experience.  You tend to use it when you feel insecure about your vocation.  Maybe at a cocktail party or a "meet and greet" (we could ditch that word as well) when people bust out their fancy euphemistic job titles "I'm a chief industrial polytechnic engineer." So, you say, "I'm an educator" and it conjures up images of tweed jackets and pipes and it's all really sophisticated.  Except, it's not you.  For what it's worth, you're not even a huge fan of formal education.  You like learning.  You like teaching.  You like that give and take between instructing and listening, asking and waiting for questions.  Don't ever feel ashamed of the term "teacher."

Sincerely:
John