An Education Story (via Email)

Yea! One of my former colleagues took a minute to write down her Education story for me since I have been whining about it on FB.  Keep 'em coming... it makes for a happy Megan!

DON'T BE LAZY! Take a minute and do something important and share YOUR education story.  You don't have to be a teacher because we have all went through the American Education System and SURVIVED... better for it! Don't forget to link back.

Without further adieu here is her story (which she typed on her iPhone and I am super impressed at her mad phone skillz):

I have a few. As for myself, I had teachers that helped mold me into the teacher I am. My junior high teacher Mrs. B, taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade all in the same classroom. It was during that time I realized I was meant to be a teacher and I strive to be as good as Mrs. B. My high school Algebra I teacher helped realize I was good in math and encouraged me to advance in that subject.

So now for a couple of the kids that help remind me why I teach. There are always kids each year that touch your life, but I'm going back to my first year teaching. I barely looked older than my juniors and seniors in PreCal. I worked hard to make things make sense for them, but sometimes you feel like you just could have done better...especially your first year. These two students happened to be juniors. As seniors they had to write a thank you note to a teacher that impacted them. Carl, when in my class, pushed me and tried to break me. Didn't cry in front of them but the first week of school during my first tough lesson Carl pushed as hard as he could. Of course after class I was in tears but I made it through the class. In his thank you note, he thanked me for pushing him to do his best and work hard. I was so amazed and touched by that because he was one I thought I didn't really impact and he tried as hard as he could to break the newbie. The other student was Abby. She was a sweetheart, worked hard but struggled through my PreCal class. She would come in for tutoring all the time and I would try to show her all the different ways I could to help her understand. Her thank you note the next year touched me, because I didn't feel I was going above and beyond what any teacher does (I still don't think I was) but she appreciated the fact that I would continue to help her on the same problems when she didn't understand. She also thanked me for showing her that women could do math. Being that I was only 4 years older than my students, I think it was for her to not only see a woman teacher but a young woman that made a difference.

Of course there is always more but those are just a couple of kids that touched my life (obviously since I remember their names and I taught them in the 99-00 school year.)

Tell Me Your Story About... Education

Don't forget to share your education story and link up.

My first few years of teaching were spent at Fort Hood, Texas where I taught at the High School with THE WORST reputation in town.  It was known for having bad kids who made the news regularly because of gang activities.  The student body did have a large gang population.  It also had 90% military children most of which had at least 1 parent who was deployed in any given year.  There were kids who had both parents deployed who lived with "aunt" so and so and there were kids who just had a place to stay and it might not even be the same each night.

These kids had to be some of the most loyal people I have ever met.  They had huge hearts to match their larger than life personalities and attitudes.  Once you proved that you were going to be fair and respect them you didn't have any problems.  Yeah, I had heard nightmare stories about teachers who were scared of the kids but never once did I experience that.  I was in control, for the most part, of my classroom from bell to bell and we got stuff done (my students in my TAKS prep class had a 75% Exit Level passing rate).  I have a 100 stories to tell you about the kids here.  They were hilarious and there was never a dull moment.

Two students that touched my heart were both actively involved in gangs but they knew the importance of getting an education.  The first student wasn't the brightest or best student but I am never going to forget him.  I had just started teaching and had asked them to fill out a form about themselves.  One of the questions is "what would you like me to call you?"  He put down this crazy sounding name that was not even a nickname for his real name, it was also what he wrote at the top of all of his papers, so I wrote him a note one day and asked him what his nickname meant.  I wish I had kept the note because he took time to tell me that his nickname was his "gang" name but not to get him wrong.  He then spent a whole page explaining to me that even though he is in a gang he is good to his momma and to his teachers and that he is a good kid.  He also explained to me that he knew that getting his diploma and understanding math was super important because he wanted to be a real estate agent someday and that he couldn't be successful without school and math.  He struggled in class and was shy and never asked questions but he was in tutoring with me almost every week so he wouldn't fail and I will tell you he was good to his teacher and a good kid.

The second kid has an even sadder story.  When a student was withdrawn from school our registrar would send out a list telling us who had withdrawn.  One day out of the blue this student showed up on the withdrawl list.  He hadn't been in school too long (long story short he had run away not too long before this because of trouble at home) when he was suddenly withdrawn.  I was a little shocked to say the least.  He was a hard worker in my class which really was hard to come by in a TAKS prep class.  Then in the morning during second period he comes walking through my door.  School policy stated that if a student wasn't on your roster you were to send them down to the counselor so I pulled him aside and told him that he had been on the withdrawl list the night before and that he needed to go to the counselor and straighten things out.  He shook his head at me like "I'm not withdrawn I am right here" and grabbed his stuff and headed to the counselor.  He didn't come back.

A few weeks later (maybe less) I see him in the hall outside the registrar's office and ask him what happened and why wasn't he in my class anymore.  He just shook his head again and said, "Miss, I am trying."  It turned out that he hadn't been living at home since he had ran away.  His father had written him off and when needing to clear Fort Hood had to have his dependent withdrawn from the school district.  Despite having no clue where his child was living or whether he was attending school regularly (which he was) he withdrew his kid so he could clear and PCS.  The student after being withdrawn by his father came to school every day with his backpack ready to go to class but unable to because he wasn't enrolled.  One day the school's administration was able to use a Homeless Student law to re-enroll him and he was able to finally resume school.  One of the school secretaries also offered him a stable place to live so that he could do what he had been trying to do for weeks... go to school.  Eventually he transferred to the Alternative High School so he could graduate since he was over 18 years old.

This is why I teach because there are students out there who want to learn.  Despite circumstances or abilities they want to be good kids who learn because it will help them later in life.

Tell Me Your Story About...

I was thinking yesterday about how many states are passing legislation affecting educators.  I really haven't found any of these that have been very supportive of educators, either.  If you Google Teacher Cuts you will get an article from pretty much every state.  Some states are wanting to get rid of Mrs. A and Mr. T to replace them with computers... COMPUTERS!?!  How are computers going to inspire our youth that Math is fun or to help them find the wonder in History?

It saddens me, as a teacher mostly, because the failure of American Education isn't solely in the teacher's hands.  When it comes to education it does take a village and there is a trinity here that must be whole and healthy to make education work.  The parent must be present and must care about the student's education, the student has to have some want and will to work at his education, and finally the teacher rounds out the equation.  The first two you can't force on anyone.  Our country is going to need a complete paradigm shift to get the first two to improve.  That won't happen until we can indoctrinate future generations to the importance of education and not about how rotten it is to the core.

So, let me get to the point.  Let's tell the world that as Americans we did learn something from a system they call FAILED and that there were teachers in our lives that MADE A DIFFERENCE (something a computer will never be able to do).  On your blog Tell Me Your Story About... YOUR EDUCATION and link back here.  I hope we can spread out a positive message about American Education and most importantly American EDUCATORS!