Teaching is hard. Teach(ers), I believe, often make it harder. How? By choosing a profession out of apathy. By blaming the kids for their inability to teach. By being really crappy students themselves.
I believe teaching, at its core, is about the love of learning. For the students AND for the teacher. If you don't love the rollar coaster ride of learning and trying out new stuff (content, pedagogy, whathaveyou), then why the hell are you teaching? As a professional, my skills need to be constantly stretched and reflected upon. I crave things that will help me become a better teacher. For God's sake, when the graduation rate for city students hovers around 50%, we NEED to WANT to do something different.
So, once again, thank you Linda Christensen. I just ordered her new book: Teaching for Joy and Justice: Reimagining the Language Arts Classroom.
Her book, Reading, Writing, and Rising Up pretty much provided the first full week of lessons for my first month teaching (see my previous post, "I am From").
So teaching for joy? Hell yes. Let's do some learning.
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