As we come
to the end of the first semester of the Med program and I reflect on all that we
have been doing and learning, it is really starting to feel like the beginning
of an incredible journey. In classes, we keep talking about how to be transformative
teachers, how to support our students, what the purpose of education really is,
and a mind-boggling amount more. It’s a lot of very powerful stuff and has made
apparent just how important a role we play in our students lives.
In our last
class, we discussed at length how to prepare our students for success—or at least
success on the test—in a situation that was all too real. When teachers are
faced with such an uphill battle of, funds and resources, and policies and
politics, how can we help our kids?
We will
have to be advocating for them every day. We will have to be on their side,
constantly thinking about how we can get them where they want to go. We talked
about organizing the school, getting them on the computer every chance we get,
and knowing donorschoose.org like the back of our hand, just to give them the
tools to prepare them for whatever it is they dream of doing.
We have so
much to do and so much responsibility, but I’m really quite excited. With this
network of colleagues here to support us, we will be able to work together to
shape the futures of our students and bring about positive change to our
schools.
from a poet whose pulse fell
DRUM DRUM DRUM!
I think you should mark this post for future. This is the perfect example of the idealism going into teaching that I fear we may lose over time. It's nice to have record of that day when "we will be able to work together to shape the futures of our students and bring about positive change to our schools". I hope to not lose it.
ReplyDeleteAs I write some of our final papers, I've reread "Gangstas, wankstas, and ridas..." and came across this little tidbit: "[Ridas] genuinely wanted to be at the school and with students, even when their school attacked them personally or the broader society belittled their profession." I felt like that during our summer session - I genuinely wanted to be there with our students. We'll encounter many negative obstacles to our success as teachers, and perhaps some of us will reach a breaking point. It's common. But as long as we still feel the drive to go to school for our students, I think we'll be keeping our eyes on the larger picture.
ReplyDeleteThe article also says, "[Ridas] described being a teacher as 'who I am, not what I am.'" I'm not going to let policy get in the way of who I am.