I am a teacher. I am passionate about what I do. I want to be able to empower my students to believe in themselves, believe in their education, believe they can achieve their goals.
I try my best to do the right thing. I seek out professional development to better serve my urban students. I read articles and follow discussions to continue to learn how my English language learners learn best. I focus on technology as a means of providing a more equitable education for my 80% low SES kids. I advocate for reform to encourage rigor not just relationships with my students. I search for additional resources to provide for them. I am dedicated to the transformation of my campus.
Still, I wonder, “When will it be enough? Will it ever be?” Will it be okay to admit my shortcomings? Maybe, I am not the most effective educator with all student groups. Maybe, as suggested in research, certain students perform better for certain types of teachers. How, then, can I transform education for these groups I may not be able to reach? If I cannot, is that okay? Should I continue to strive for what I cannot achieve? Or, maybe, there’s another way around it?
I do believe that students and teachers have affinity groups. Especially at a young age, people self-organize into groups where there are others who are similar to them. It just seems to be human nature. Later in life, people who do embrace diversity find themselves in groups with various cultures, but, in a high school setting, what can I do to support my students in feeling more comfortable with diverse learners and teachers? Yes, read multicultural texts. Yes, model the behavior. Yes, openly discuss the importance of a global society. I just wonder how to speed this along; is it possible? If not, will my students ever be able to learn at maximum capacity?
The notion of voice to empower students is critical. One thing I can do is provide a learning context where students and teachers feel safe and encouraged to speak about what they need. I can not only invite suggestions but also respond to these recommendations in a quick and effective manner. And still, I wonder if this is enough?
There’s no magic pill. There’s no program to be purchased. There’s no assessment to measure it, but the idea of having teachers who certain students do not respond to is at odds with effective learning. I offer my experiences as counter examples for I know I could have done many things better, but I would like to hear more on what people are doing that works.
What can educators do? What can policy makers do? What can parents do? What can students do? What can we all do to transform the educational system to one where all learners have access to a rigorous and meaningful education?
Big questions. Answers will begin to form with dicussions like these. Honest reflection will help tease out the issues and hopefully, get us closer to possible solutions.
Persistent Pondering 