title (teaching)

For many years, I had difficulty describing my job to people. I coordinated, worked with communities, wrote curriculum, and facilitated my way to being a project specialist at one job. I worked as a go-between for international students, their parents, the Americans they lived with and little companies from around the globe to be a student services coordinator. I organized events, coordinated napkins, and trained interns as an Assistant Director. No one really understood what I was doing. I longed for the day when I could say what I was in one word and people would understand.

Now, I'm a first-grade teacher. Everyone has interacted with a first-grade teacher. Most of the time, it happened when they were six. I think that people view my job with their six-year old eyes--complete with flashbacks to tall women, who held their hand, and talked in a soft voice.

I view my job with the eyes of a 29-year-old. I see first grade as a time to teach children to read, to help them develop the skills they will need for the rest of their lives, and a daily struggle between chaos and learning. I spend my energy trying to figure out how to best help the student who tries so hard and still cannot write with vowels. I struggle to figure out how I can package the process of reading more effectively to help my students learn to see the patterns in at the words around them. I try to bring patience, understanding, and awareness to each moment. I often fail, forget and overlook. But, I keep trying. And, they are learning.

Last night, I was asked if my students napped and asked to tell stories about the funny things they do by a stranger who found out I was a teacher. I felt like I made characters of my students and myself. I feel like I should be able to give people a more accurate description of my job, so that people do not have to perpetuate their somewhat misguided views of what the world of education looks like right now. But, I have to worry about knowing exactly where 24 individuals are in their literacy development, figure out how to teach the concept of polygons most effectively, and try to incorporate technology in the classroom, while maintaining an environment that promotes kindness, democracy, and civil society.