Who would you expect your typical high school English language arts teacher to be? There's a good chance you would picture me. I'm a 35 year old woman with four children of my own, two of whom are in middle school and two in high school. I think high school kids are amazing and creative and energetic. I think their lives can be hard and that those lives may get even harder. They can be whiny and dramatic or stressed and withdrawn or thoughtful and kind, sometimes all at once. I think every single one of them is a huge ball of potential. Every one of those kids is our future. I believe my job is to help them learn how to think critically and shape their own lives into something wonderful, meaningful, and fulfilling.
At 35, I'm a little older than the typical college student. I earned my first degree, in English language and literature, when I was 22. The intervening years have been crammed full of life, including a variety of jobs, lots of kids, volunteer work, and fun. I hope to bring all of that experience into my new career.
I once had a personal blog in which I shared little vignettes from my life. I mostly wrote about my family and my hobbies. This professional blog will have a different focus, but one thing remains the same. I still believe every blog post can be improved by a picture.
This semester I am pre-student teaching in a local high school, working with an English I class. These pictures are the view from one of the second-floor stairway vestibules. Pretty, right?
The view from the classroom window looks like a Van Gogh painting: fields, a little bit of a roll to the land, patches of trees, and hay bales in the distance. I feel like the environment speaks to me. I hope the students find something that inspires them. I hope we can build a classroom community that allows them to share what inspires them with me.
We're starting out with Animal Farm by George Orwell. My cooperating teacher has chosen the books for the semester, but he has entrusted me with the teaching of an entire book later this semester. We've worked together before and I feel like our working relationship functions well, enabling me to teach and learn with a lot of good quality feedback.
This year will be an adventure! Here's hoping it's just the beginning of something amazing.
