Upon my first week back of teaching I had could not help but feel dull. Looking back on my first week of teaching in October I can remember being excited and pouring my heart into my lessons plans still to feel that they were not enough. Don’t get me wrong I still spend time and energy planning, but initially there was not one lesson where I did not attempt to situate the material the students where studying into some broader social cultural context. After I was almost through the lesson which had been on the middle ages I thought I could have made connections to social hierarchy today and feudalism more explicit; or I could have used the bubonic plague to frame a discussion around public health. Once my gse classes began in the next week I quickly realized the issue. In order to stay sharp I must surround myself with others who are interested in being sharp. It is vital that I stay connected to a community of practitioners interested in social justice and seeing the world as it could be. With my 10 day break and then 1 week of only being in the schools, I had not the chance to reconnect with those who stimulate and constantly share new ideas and approaches i.e. my peers and mentors (aka instructors).
When we meet on Wednesday for my methods class, my instructor put the following quote up by Bell Hooks right before she dismissed us “ Education at its best—this profound human transaction called teaching—is not just about getting information or getting a job. Education is about healing and wholeness. It is about empowerment, liberation, transcendence, about renewing vitality of life. It is about finding and claiming ourselves and our place in the world.” This reminder was exactly what I need and my initial feelings of dullness revealed to me how important it will be to keep myself stimulated once I leave this program. As a future educator I will seek an immediate family that will be there to remind and support me when I seem to be veering away from my understandings of education.
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