Year 11 – Week 16: 20 Moments Of 2020: Part 3

14. Student teaching…mentor 

This fall, I took on the role of student teaching mentor for the first time in my sixteen-year teaching career.  It may have the worst of times to take on a student teacher, but it was the best of times in more ways. With all of the curriculum changes, it gave the student-teacher space to work on curriculum development, and I also really needed this help. I was teaching general music without singing and a band class without instruments. I needed help, and my student teacher needed the experience. Because of our mutual effort to make this partnership work and a shared paradigm of teaching, we could help each other grow as educators. Both despite the pandemic and because of it, student teaching was a success for both of us.  

There is more than teaching students in my future as an educator. A path lies ahead of me, and after being a student teaching mentor, it's becoming clearer.  

 

13. Inspiring John Lewis

The late Representative, John Lewis, is one of my most important influences as a teacher. His work continues to inspire me to work harder for my students, myself, and our country. Striving to continue his work in my classroom in some small way brings meaning to my work. When Representative Lewis passed away on July 17th, he left an essay, one final lesson. 

His final essay was a gift and a reminder that we all have the power to inspire and make the world a better place, as he did.  

When Representative John Lewis came to my school and spoke to all of the students and teachers, I don't remember clearly the content of his entire speech. However, I do remember how he made me feel.   

Representative Lewis made me feel like I belonged, I mattered, and I had the power to make right the injustice I see in the world. I hope that someday I can make my student feel Representative Lewis made me feel that day.  

 

12.  Opening In-Person

The opening of this school year was the most difficult school year openings in my career. It was a process filled with fear, uncertainty, and tension. There was no guidebook and no clear process. My views on what should happen in the fall evolved. I started with being completely anti-in-person school to fully supporting and spending extra hours late and night and on weekends trying to make in-person school work.  

I can't fully explain how this happened, nor do I fully understand how I came to be working so hard to make something work that many people felt was the wrong choice.  

In times like these, all I could, all we can do is "the next right thing." One choice, one step at a time. With the future as uncertain as it is, all you can do focus on the next choice in front of you. And now that I think about it, the future was never as certain as we thought. Maybe it's not that I had it wrong this fall or last summer, but I had something else wrong in previous years.