Annie Canfield

A Lifetime Learner

 

The idea of being a lifetime learner influences my entire perspective on living, interacting with the world, learning, and teaching. To me, being a lifetime learner means being curious every single day. It means observing the world around me, asking questions, and reflecting on my experiences. It means accepting the fact that I will never know all of the things that I want to know, but that every day that I wake up and choose to explore and learn and grow, I add meaning to my life. 

 

This is who I am because my life has been filled with people who have encouraged me to love learning. 

 

I was raised in Council, Idaho, a town of 800 people nestled in a mountain valley. My mother is a teacher and my father is a retired forester. Both of my parents encouraged curiosity in me by telling me stories, giving me books, taking me on nature hikes, giving me opportunities to be creative, and asking me questions that made me think about my own opinions and knowledge. 

 

My elementary school and high school were filled with teachers who did me the same favor of encouraging me to explore my interests. I had a first grade teacher who gave me special notebooks to write stories in, a sixth grade teacher who was an unrivaled example of how a teacher with boundless energy can inspire a class, and a high school government teacher who always welcomed me into his office to discuss not only government, but anything else I had questions about.

 

When the opportunity for me to spend a year of high school in Germany arose, my teachers, guidance counselor, and superintendent helped me design a plan to take the right classes to receive high school credit at home. Their enthusiasm and belief in me gave me the confidence to go to Germany and learn all that I could there. As a result, I became fluent in German, expanded my worldview, and developed a greater curiosity about the world at large. 

 

In college, I encountered more role models. I had a professor who invited me to coffee even when I was no longer taking his classes. I had a professor who knew I wanted to be a teacher even before I knew it, and she told me so. I had a professor who would come into class and tell us how excited he was to teach the day's lesson, because he had come up with new strategies of sharing the information and was eager to hear our feedback on how effective it was. I had numerous professors who spent hours outside of class  helping me understand the course material and listening to my ideas and thoughts. 

 

My parents, teachers, and professors have all shaped me into the person that I am today, and it is my hope that, as a teacher, I can do my part in creating lifetime learners.