Lessons to be Learned

Teaching. A career often thought of as something anyone can do.  A fall-back plan, a space-filler while preparing for the real job, or a career you come to later in life after you've already done the hard work.  It's taken me just two days of teaching to appreciate how completely off-base these ideas are.

After leading a unit alongside of another facilitator for two weeks, that the students absolutely devoured about the passion of reading and writing, I was feeling anxious but really thrilled about the idea of taking on the classroom by myself.  During these earlier classes I was able to bring excerpts of writing from pieces I love, and share them with the students.  I chose a snippet from Toni Morrison's, Beloved, which focuses on the idea of loving yourself, regardless of what others think or say as one piece to share. For my second piece, I selected the beginning of Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go, which has inspired me throughout many different stages of my life to take chances and be independent without looking back.  I was able to juxtapose these two pieces and their writing style, Morrison and her sophisticated tone, against Seuss' playful rhyme-scheme, and share how they each convey a powerful message of self-reliance.  I was blown away by the student's interpretation of the writing, and their ability to apply these themes to their own lives.  Needless to say, these classes were quite inspiring and gave me much to look forward to for the coming weeks, months, and years of working with the Imagine Scholars.

Grade 9 students after our first passion class

Feeling excited and possibly a bit over-confident after the wild success of the passion unit, I began teaching on my own last Thursday.  My first class was with the Grade 9 students, who you can see pictured above.  Based on the zest and willingness to share that I saw the previous two weeks of class, I had similar expectations going into our first class discussion of Pro and Con articles.  Despite my own energetic presentation and having made an effort to pick an article which I thought would interest the students, I was greeted by silence, unenthusiastic spirits, and sleepy eyes.  After a class of my urging, encouraging, and begging for student participation without much reciprocation, I went to sleep Thursday night feeling confused about what went wrong, nervous about class the next day, and a bit discouraged.

I woke up Friday morning feeling determined to turn things around and luckily had the support of my Grade 10 students to help me do so.  With virtually the exact same lesson plan, my Friday class experience could not have been more different than the previous day.  Each and every student was eager to share their thoughts and opinions of the article, wanted to continue the class discussion after our class time had come to an end, and were asking if we would be able to continue the discussion into next week's class period.  I had to do little prompting, and instead was able to sit back and smile while I listened to the students' interpretations and impressions of the article.

Although Friday's class was more enjoyable than Thursdays, I learned a lot from my first two days of solo teaching.  I'm extremely lucky to be working with a group of highly motivated students, many of whom are at the very top of their class.  Despite this fact, I need to keep in mind that they are teenagers, who are still working through how to feel comfortable and confident with themselves. Even if they have the answers, they aren't always going to share them in front of their peers.  This was also a good reminder that this is just as much a learning experience for me as it is the students.  As I stated earlier, I can say without a doubt that teaching is NOT easy, and is something I hope I will learn to become successful at overtime, but that may not always be the case for now.  I know there will be days that I walk away feeling as confused and discouraged as I did on Thursday, and I need to learn to take these days in stride and grow from them, instead of dwelling and feeling defeated.

Luckily, this is just the beginning of the journey and I have lots of ideas and support to help me every step of the way! Until next time, Sala Kahle!