New Era

Summer Training Institute is underway and I'm finding it more and more difficult to find time for self-reflection. I call it a night earlier and earlier, and it feels like free time flies like nothing. But, I really want to make it a point to chronicle my daily thoughts as I enter the teaching profession. I might even consider opening up a new blog to designate all those posts to add some structure to my teaching self-reflections. Otherwise, I know for sure this blog will be all about teaching and that's not where I really foresaw it going....

Anyway, here are just a few things:

-I had 3 interviews on Monday. In one interview, I got the sense that interviewers looked at me thinking I had no idea what I was trying to get myself into. They asked me questions about my background, about the high school I went to, and others of the like. In each interview, principals had a scenario question about a misbehaving student asking what I would do in such situations. After I provided an answer, they'd respond with the question "and what if that doesn't work?" After they'd ask "and what if that doesn't work?" and "... and what if that doesn't work?" It's obvious that teachers are concerned with a first-year teacher's management skills, and they really want to gauge how I'm going to react, they want to know how committed I am to working with urban youth, and they want to know if I really know what it is I'm getting myself into.

-How do you walk the fine line between breaking down the culture of power, and providing students access to the culture of power? It's undeniable that a culture of power exists in this world, and it's necessary that our students learn about this culture of power. At the same time, it's also necessary that we acknowledge the diverse cultures in our classrooms and allow our students' ideas and expertise guide the flow of the lesson. To deny a student's expert knowledge is to disempower them.

-During opening ceremonies, a OUSD district official shared his story of becoming a teacher. He said both his aunties who were teachers told him "Don't do it!" upon learning he wanted to become a teacher. He did it, anyway. During his first year, his auntie's came back to him and said, "We only told you not to do it because we wanted to know how committed you were. Others who have sought a career in education back away when the hear teachers tell them 'not to do it,' but you stuck with it... and now we know you're committed." Teaching requires commitment, a type of commitment I've never experienced before, a type that calls people to make it their purpose and passion.

-It's fun to learn about other people. People in this program are all over the country. From learning about the culture of Missouri and Nebraska and New York, to learning about the passions and paths that brought everyone here.

-What's empowering for me about these framework sessions is that this is no longer studying education for studying's sake, this is FOREAL this time. All of us here will be teaching in 2 months (first day is on the 27th), and all of us here are working to be as prepared as possible on that very first day.