It wasn't my plan to be an English teacher. Science was the plan. I knew that I wanted to teach, and I felt like I could identify with the science crowd. All the scientists I saw in text books and on TV looked like me. English people, they were, well....different. They spoke about strange ideas, they wore strange clothes. They weren't me.
My undergraduate teacher program required me to have two areas of concentration. I was going to teach science, but for my second choice I marked English. I liked to read, so I figured that those courses wouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't have even called it a back up plan.
But now, 15 years from that point, here I am teaching English. Here I am, an English person. An English person with certificates, awards, and recognition for teaching English. That's interesting...not just because I didn't plan on teaching English, but because I can point to so many times where I did so poorly.
And I'm not saying that now, today, after all these years of teaching, I am at some place in my career where the days of screwing up are behind me..I do it just as much now than I ever have. But I look at error differently. I seek out difficulty, and look to put myself in positions where I know I won't get it right. And I'm doing it all because of some things that I'm starting to figure out about teaching, about writing, and about learning and growth.
-It's a process
-It's non-linear
-There is no ending place
-It's different for everyone
And it seems that the more I embrace and understands these realities, the better I teach, write, and learn. The better I understand what it is to be an English teacher. The more I feel like one.
It's unfortunate that this vision, one that has been so hard to come by, is so contrary to the current narrative being shaped for our schools, students, and teachers today.
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