We had our first session of Classroom to Community last
week. It was great to meet all the new pairs and to see them start to connect
with each other. Audra gave me a big hug as we put everything in my car after
the session: “Back in the saddle again. Feels great.” I couldn’t have agreed
more. For me, C2C is the uncontested highlight of my spring semester.
As usual for the first night of class, Audra and I probably
talked too much. It’s the requisite information dump of here’s what you need to
do and when and why and how. What I wanted to tell my Emory students was
instead this:
Being in the classroom with these kids will change you
forever. You will feel your heart warm with each smile, each high five, each
time you help a child learn even the smallest thing. You will walk taller
because you made an eight-year-old’s face light up by walking into the room.
You will take these kids home with you in your heart and wonder about them when
you go to sleep at night. You will wonder if they had a warm breakfast like you
or if they got a hug when they left the house. You will wonder if they spent
the night taking care of a sick little brother and if they had time to do
homework. You will wonder if they took their medication or if they ran out and
couldn’t afford more. You will hope that someone said, “I love you.”
In these first few weeks especially, you will spend a lot of
time being outraged at the injustice and inequality. You will feel a lump in
your throat when you actually see firsthand the health disparities you’ve
mostly only read about. You will often feel helpless. You may be temped to cut
your own classes and spend more time in the classroom. Some of you will want to
quit health altogether and go teach.
For each of you, let the lump in your throat remind you of
how much your health expertise is desperately needed in the communities in
which “your kids” live. Remember that though each child is unique, there are
thousands across the country living in the same conditions. Think about the
leadership role you will play in making a difference because you actually get
it.
For our Teach For America partners – Audra and I have been
there too, seeing our kids struggle with physical and mental health issues, yet
feeling powerless and inept to deal with them. Engage your Emory partner in
these conversations – have him help you find community health resources for
your kids and parents. Work with her on creating the health lessons your kids
need on topics you know little about. Please come to see all of us at Emory as
your go-to health resource. We are here for you, but we're also here with you. Audra and I certainly wish we’d had the same.
Tonight’s lesson is about mindset and its role in teaching
and learning. We’ll conclude with an exciting improv workshop to help learn
how to “wear your teacher pants” and also to build community in our group. Both
are an experiment and we look forward to seeing how it turns out. I am always appreciative
of everyone’s willingness to play along and try new things.
-- Ariela
(Photos: Ms. Bryson's fabulous 6th graders)
C2C folks -- how were your classroom visits this week?
ReplyDeleteIt was great to get back into the classroom with Ms. Drucker! I basically floated around for a couple of hours while kids were rotating among stations doing partner reading, independent reading, fluency drills, and practicing sounding out syllables and forming words. For the first time, I tried helping kids learn how to read. Not just get through a sentence or read a whole book, but actually sound out letters and syllables and hear what a word sounds like when the letters are strung together and read aloud from a page. I can't even describe how challenging and what a unique experience it is to teach this to kids. Huge props to teachers of young kids who are helping them learn these fundamental skills!
ReplyDeleteMy classroom visit this week was slightly overwhelming, but also entertaining. I am extremely impressed with how well Ms. Daniel maintains control of her students. They all seem to be doing different things at once. It was also entertaining to watch the students interact with each other and Ms. Daniel, as well as to see them get really excited when they knew an answer to a question. I am really looking forward to interacting with the students next week!
ReplyDeleteBAAAHHHH! Something about seeing "my" students up on this blog definitely triggered the lump-in-the-throat feeling. Even though I work every day in my cubicle with a picture of "my" students planting a tree, I still feel like they're too far away. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to meet and work with these great kids! C2C has really stuck with me... and I'm ready to get back into the classroom!
ReplyDelete