"Ms. Castro, me puede llamar Sebastian en vez de Juan*?"
"Umm...claro que sí."
At the beginning of the school year, one of my 6-year-old students decided to change his name a few months into 1st grade. I went with it, as did the rest of the class, & learning went on, normal as usual.
The confusing & comical moment in which he asked me for permission to do so always replays in my head. This child made it so easy to change something so important in his life - hisname - & everyone was so accepting of it.
I wonder what life would be like if all changes were this easy to make.
Gymnastics molded me into the person I am today. The following video pretty much sums up my experiences with the sport:
As I joined Teach For America, I came to the realization that gymnastics had impacted my character more than my time as a student in my K-12 classrooms. Time management, discipline, perseverance, resilience, hard work...all of these skills came from a sport still dear to my heart.
I've also come to the realization that sports are a luxury - a luxury most kids at a Title 1 schools don't have the opportunity in which to partake. I often wonder how their lives would be transformed if they had a "gymnastics."
This year, a few teachers decided to bring soccer, cheerleading & football to our elementary school. These sports, along with the running club, have impacted school spirit tremendously, & it's been incredible to see the little transformations here & there within the school community.
As the culminating event for running club, I ran The Cowtown 5k with about 30+ students & parents - it was AWESOME. We ran united throughout the heart of Fort Worth, surrounded by the cowtown community - police officers, organizations, businesses, family & friends.
Five months of running club isn't quite comparable to my 10 years flipping across the floor, flying through the air, swinging around bars, balancing on a 4-inch beam...
BUT
I truly hope one of our runners got a glimpse of what I experienced with my gymnastics.
My first graders are the most loving people I've ever met. They greet each other at the door in the mornings, applaud each other when questions are answered correctly, smile incessantly...I could go on & on!
During rough days (typically Mondays) I like to keep track of the things they do that really make me smile.
Today included:
"Can I stay in first grade next year? So you can be my teacher again?"
25 hugs received throughout the day
"Ms. Castro, I don't ever want to lose you."
They have a way of articulating love that is unmatched by adults.
Despite the fact these cutesy actions/words are from 6 & 7-year-olds, they never fail to make my start to the week a little bit better.
Loved the message from this GoldieBlox commercial, considering fewer than 3 in 10 graduates in science, technology, engineering & mathematics are women (UPWORTHY). Food for thought.
"What are your plans after you finish Teach For America?"
I feel like college graduation is slowly approaching. Again. & again, the question is consistently asked, slightly altered from two years before.
For the most part, my corp members & I dread the question. It feels weird, to not know what the next part of your life will look like.
Many of us recently attended a job fair in order to learn about other jobs within the metroplex - jobs that fight educational inequality, yet remove us from classrooms.
"You're a certified bilingual teacher? Wow. You know, these districts really need you." - Comment from a man discussing his company at job fair.
Did he really tell me I need to stay in the classroom, instead of considering working for his organization?
I'm lucky to have so many options & opportunities.
During independent practice of a math lesson earlier this week, a student asked me, "why do I need to learn this?" [We were learning how addition & subtraction were related to each other (fact families), & practicing how to find all number sentences given 3 related numbers.]
After explaining why knowing how to use addition & subtraction, he smiled & said "OK." Quickly, he went back to work, while I thought about what had just happened.
A big part of teaching content is explaining why the learning is important. How will these kids use this knowledge in the future? My class is motivated to learn, but I know they would work even harder if I made more of an effort to set purpose during lessons.
Teaching is not just about content mastery. This MLK quote captures what it's all about. As this semester has come to a close, I'll take the winter break reflect upon how to teach the "whole" child.
ICEpocolypse canceled school this past Friday, December 6th, & I believe teachers were more thrilled than students…I know I was! After prepping for an uber important observation Thursday (which ended up being canceled at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday), as well as other usual teacher tasks, I mentally needed a day off!
@emirolla
My days in ICEolation have meant lots of Netflix (Scandal + House of Cards) / cleaning / catching up on school work. NOTHING is open because the icy roads make driving nearly impossible. DFW just doesn't have the materials to handle this type of weather. & while ICEmaggedon has provided a nice vacation from real life, I'm hoping the roads will be better for school tomorrow…assuming we actually have school tomorrow. Roads are still VERY bad.
@j_jimenez
Each workday I venture towards east Berry to get to work. I see a drastic change along the drive from my TCU neighborhood to Stop Six. Besides the difference in infrastructure, I see a lot of people outside, walking. Less cars, more people walking to school, work…more homelessness.
On my mind are my students in/near stop 6. I hope their houses are warm enough, that they have enough blankets to stay covered, that their parents were not called into work during this awful weather, & that their food supply has been big enough. I hope school is not canceled tomorrow, because school might be more cozy than home to these kids during this time. Fingers crossed DFW can take care of the ice today.
