One of My Early Teaching Jobs
One of my early teaching jobs involved teaching at an all native school. This school had "the worst of the worst, " the ; dents that even public alternative schools had expelled. The ; dents who straggled in the door every day were living lives of desperation, labeled as failures and never expected to amouni anything. Our school had an on-premise day care, so we had a of teen mothers who were trying to break free of their cycle poverty. Every student who came to us realized we were the chance they had to make something of their lives.
As a fairly new teacher, I was terrified of them. They w mostly African-Americans from the inner-city, and I was a teacher who grew up in the affluent suburbs. I had visions of they were like gleaned from countless hours of television c movies. I was sure these kids were violent, amoral people, somehow I envisioned myself as their savior, the person wi would turn their lives from violence and poverty to peace a prosperity. I couldn't have been more wrong.
My first day there, the students knew they add me in a con
i took advantage of every misstep I made. The first scene in mgerous Minds could have been my classroom, and I had no Marine moves to get their attention. I was scared and nervous, 1 I wondered why I ever thought I could teach these incurables. As I was about to leave, certain that I would turn in my ignition that afternoon, one of my students came over and i, "Oh, you 11 be okay. They's just testing' you. "With a smile, he interred out.
I have never been a person to turn down a challenge, so I ne back the next day and the next and the day after that. After hile, the challenges came less often, and I knew I had "made when I heard one of our students tell another, "You got Miz lson?Yeah, she cool. "
June 8th, 2010
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