Here I am again, early morning blogger, thoughts jumbling around in my head already, and I've just got to get them out. I had such an amazing teaching experience yesterday. This is one of the experiences that I feel I will draw on for years to come. I know I said that I would write a part 2 to motivashion, and I will, but this is really a blog worthy post, I promise, and I will get back to that topic probably the next time I am on. So the story is, I was substituting for the first time at a high school yesterday and I was very nervous about the type of day that I would have. So many substitutes have warned me about needing to take guts of steel to an assignment at a high school. It is not for the faint of heart, they say. To top it off I wasn't given any details about the job, it simply said vacant position. What the?? What does that imply??
It turns out, it's a Speech class that had gone horribly wrong. The poor children were waiting on a class to be renovated so they could have a place of their own (and they're very close to completion on that), so they were having to rove around the campus, borrowing classrooms week after week and having no physical stability. As if that wasn't sad enough, their permanent teacher had left a considerable amount of time ago and they had been with substitute after substitute for a good chunk of the year. The children were very tired of the lack of stability and were desperate for some new life. This fledgling teacher made an IMPACT yesterday, and it felt so good, and it's landed me a recurring substitute position two days a week for potentially 3 weeks with the same class. It's going to be so nice for me, and for them, to actually see something grow.
Substituting's nice because if you have a challenging class that is beyond your ability, you can walk out that door at the end of the day and never have to take it on again, and it's not your responsibility if those children learn anything that year. However, permanent, or semi-permanent teaching is a very rich experience. You bond with the children. You engage them. You inspire them. You see them change before your very eyes. It's something I want so bad. Today I'll be with the same students and we'll be taking our rough ideas for a 5 minute speech on self ambition/identity and developing a formal outline for it. The children will learn actual speech skills FROM ME!! I am so excited. This will make them more prepared/less nervous to present to me on NEXT THURSDAY (!!!) when I return as their substitute again. =-D.
I absolutely want to do this. My children were awesome in class yesterday despite their circumstances. They really opened up to me about their dreams and their goals and their passions. I got some incredible speech ideas out of them. One girl wanted to be a neo-natal nurse, delivering babies, so she could experience the miracle of life and be a part of a family's first moment together. One girl said she wanted to be a teacher, and my heart swelled. One boy said he wanted to write about his love for poetry, which is very bold, and how his mother had inspired him to write through her own poetry, and that now he is inspiring others. One young lady wanted to be a cosmetologist because although some people might not see the beauty in themselves, she sees the beauty in all people and would like to make a difference in the way they perceive themselves. Other children loved to travel. Another was into space science and wanted to write about that. Still another student had transferred from Kenya and wanted to talk about his love for soccer. I was just blown away over and over again. I have to leave for work in a half an hour and I am so excited.
On top of sharing such an inspiring story, I want to share that there is a teachable moment in this. You want to know more about your students and how you can help them, personal narrative and one on one time went a long way. I only shared the really upbeat, stellar dreams of my students, the flip side was it helped some of the students cope with traumatic events of their past. Divorce, backstabbing, and poverty were among the really gritty topics that came up yesterday and I was able to allow this assignment to be a therapy. No lie, it felt like the Freedom Writers movie. I have the utmost hope for today. It felt so good telling those students yesterday, don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow to help you. To quote a song, 'Something tells me, I'm into something good.'. =-D
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