Thursday, September 22, 2011

Letter To a New Teacher


In teaching you are only really new for the first five minutes. There are so many problems to solve in every moment in a classroom that by the first day you've learned enough to make the next better.

By the first eight weeks you are already experienced, if you are paying attention. If you are working hard. If you are open-hearted, generous, humble and smart.

And you are.

The first year is difficult. You'll never work harder in your life. You already know this. But please remember that the first year is also sacred. You'll never forget it. You'll reference it five years from now, ten years from now. Twenty.

In my first year of teaching I taught fourth grade. I spent my weekends prepping elaborate science experiments. I commented on every page of their journals. I wore high heel pumps on my first day.

High heels pumps were a silly choice. My feet were killing me by nine o'clock in the morning. But I looked sharp and my students noticed. A few of them drew pictures of my various outfits in their journals. I was so young, only twenty-two. I had to dress to impress.

You dress to impress and you might not know it but the students notice. They notice the high regard you have for them. You express your respect for them in your professionalism, your enthusiasm for your subject, your showing up day after day. You hold them accountable for their work and their actions, and you hold yourself accountable too. You are impressing them and impressing your colleagues with how hard you are working, your willingness to make mistakes and to learn.

I hope you are impressing yourself.

These are bad years to be a teacher. No one wants to pay us properly. People who couldn't last for those first five minutes in our place in front of the classroom want to blame us for everything wrong in education.

Bring it on, I say. They can't do what we can do. It takes a certain kind of courage to stand witness to our kids.

Kids are coming to us not just unprepared for our curriculum. They are coming to us gunshot, traumatized, angry and hurt.

But not hopeless. Our students are never hopeless.

You take their hope and give the flame a little air. You do the same for your colleagues. I'm old but not too old to learn, after all.

You are naive and you teach me to take kids at their face value. You are trusting and you teach me to think the best of my own students. You build new curriculum out of thin air and you teach me to innovate. You come to work on Saturdays and you teach me to prepare for my classes as best as I can.

You care too much and you teach me to care enough.

And it's working. Our students read and write better than they did before they started our classes. They are closer to their dreams of college. They'll make it, too. We'll make sure they do.

Our students will change the world, thank God. They will combine their innovation and good hearts with the communication skills they learned from us. I can't worry too much about the future when I know this generation of students coming up. They are capable of so much good.

I can't worry about the future of education when I know this generation of teacher. You are already doing so much good.

3 comments:

  1. It's Emily Diaz(from Loretto). I'm in college now, and I still consider the days I spent in your classroom as some of the high points of my education. You are a truly amazing person and an inspiring teacher. I wrote down a little speech you gave in class one day about why being a writer was the best job in the world(besides teaching)and I still go back and read it from time to time. I'm really considering working towards being a teacher. I go back and forth between that and pursuing something that I might not love as much but has more security. This is exactly what I needed to read right now. Thank you so much for being the goddess that you are.

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  2. I absolutely love this. I am going to go re read this after my first day teaching in a little more than a year and a half from now. God knows, I'll need it. You are in incredible writer and even though this wasn't meant for me, it still rings so true and into my heart.

    The Wanderer

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    1. Katie, I learned so much from you. There are many many of my students who came after you who owe you a great debt.

      Your future students are unbelievably fortunate to have you for their teacher.

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