W19D98 (Friday)Teaching is more than a sum of its individual movable parts. I am a teacher who works with all ages and cognitive abilities. I work with students who have trauma also students who have no home. I work with students who are in the upper third of income bracket. It's not an easy job, but it's one I love. And this is why I feel my vision of what America should be is reflected in what I want students to learn.
I don't want to feed them full of information so they can regurgitate it I want them to think and question and trust and disbelieve being a teacher is more than the sum of its parts. There are days that are really good and everything works like clockwork, and you feel like wow
I've mastered this. Then there's Monday, and one of your students tells you "your
class is boring" or "you're old" or "I don't like doing this" and you question, that you don't even believe what you believe.
I believe that the art can transform lives. It can build confidence. It can unify communities
and yes it can teach us everything we need to know about life. Though that is now a commonly held belief, there are still some naysayers. So in addition to students sometimes doubting you, the doubts in your head can also be from the negativity you are around; fellow teachers, administrators, parents. We are a vulnerable profession that sometimes appears superfluous. Doubt. I can knock you down. So I sometimes make the uncertainty feel less so, by wearing a mask of belief, even when I am not feeling full of self confidence.
Nevertheless, I'm a true believer. I talk to students and see, at times, no visible impact. And even when doubt clouds my reason, I continue to look at students and in their faces see their real potential. Even if they are yet to see it for themselves. I look down the school hallways and pretend I am not there once in a while. If I wasn't, who would replace the me I am for these students?
Who would do this.
Who would do this.
It's not about skills. It's not about academic achievement. It's about growth and being able to see yourself in the herd. Seeing yourself as an individual, not a cog. Each person as an individual.
That's what the arts taught me and what I bring to the arts.
That's what I bring to my class. It is my mission.
It is my mantra.