Every year I say I’m going to do this. Every year is THE YEAR!!! But this time is different. This time is special. I think that a part of it is that I finally feel that after 8 years of teaching in a highly challenging urban environment I think I know what I am doing…or I’m definitely getting very close to knowing what I’m doing. It has taken a long time and a lot of thinking and learning on my feet – but this year something changed. This year I knew what I was doing because I knew what I WANTED. Teaching has become the second machine that is now always running in my head. I know what classroom setups will and won’t work, I can tell you exactly where on the materials cart you can find yellow colored pencils and I can spot a beautifully CCLS aligned task from a mile away. In my “free time” I wonder which talk moves aren’t being used enough in my classroom discussions, I envision new data tracking matrixes and I search online for neon leopard tissue box holders.
This, along with many other things, is all proof that I have officially grown into my role as a teacher. It really hasn’t been easy, I know that, and I think that maybe I grew into the place I am in now without realizing it because my job is so challenging and so in your face. I mentioned earlier that I work in a high needs area, but to narrow that down for you, my classroom is located in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. My kids are young children of color performing quite often below state standards when arriving to my classroom. They almost all live in housing projects where they are exposed to the real life, day-to-day effects of poverty, racism and violence. What I do is important because my kids are important. If this job wasn’t important to me there would be no way I would go through the things I do with my students every day, but I do it and I’m happy to do it. I want the best for my kids and that meant over the past several years I had to make myself the best I could be so their time with me was worth as much as possible to them. I began seeing the things out there in the teaching world that worked for me and for my students and I began seeing things that didn’t work for us.
Last school year, I began to find the confidence to start building my own materials and I found that what I was doing was working. My kids were more excited than ever and I began to see a different kind of engagement in my classroom. I wanted to make learning fun and provide my kids with opportunities to be who they are and love themselves. I wanted to find new and creative ways for my kids to open their minds together as problem solvers and dynamic thinkers. I wanted to bridge the gaps between thinking and creating and I wanted to do all of this using big, bright, bold colors and shapes and ideas.
Eventually, I realized that these ideas that have brought so much positivity and love of learning into my room might be just as helpful and inspiring to others. I hope that by looking at my products and checking out what we have to offer you will see that my work is focused on helping you educate, motivate, inspire and love your children as much as I do mine. This year I will be blogging and sharing about my process, ideas, wonderings and products as well as sharing my teaching adventures.
