As a teacher, I think about community a lot. I remember back to my experience at institute, where my friend Lexy and I created the "Master Learners Kitchen" in order to create a community of learners for our students in the Mississippi Delta. I now work daily to build a sense of community for my students. I went to observe in my old 6th grade classrooms last week, and thought about the community there, the constant celebration of students as individuals. In college I had multiple communities that helped me develop as an individual, and I have a community of friends who do the same for me today.
I studied the sociology of education in school, and thought a lot about the communities that are developed in public schools. In every paper I wrote, or research project that I did my thesis always seemed to come back to the importance of a school's culture in transforming a school. I work in a school that is in the process of transformation. We focus heavily on assessment, management, professional development, etc., but we rarely talk about community. We rarely stop and metaphorically say "namaste" to each other. Teachers, children, administrators, counselors, secretaries, etc. are rarely celebrated for the light inside of each of them. When I began Teach For America I was set on making a difference and I think through yoga and my Quaker values I've found the way that I personally can transform my school. I am going to say "namaste" to my children hourly, to other teachers daily, and to my administrators at least once a week. I hope through modeling this behavior I can influence others to do the same.
So I will start with all of you, my friends, family, and coworkers who read my blog, "Namaste!"
all be thinking to yourselves, "what do teachers do during the summer?" Well, hopefully I will do a whole lot more blogging! Many teachers take the entire summer off in order to refresh themselves for the new school year, many of my teacher friends will spend the summer traveling, sitting by the pool, and trying out new recipes. I, however, will be spending my summer a little bit differently. I was given an amazing opportunity to work for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools this summer shadowing a district superintendent. The superintendent who I am working for oversees 49 of the Title 1 elementary schools in the district. I will spend the summer going to meetings with him, and also working on a project that will hopefully have some impact on the district in the future (more on this next post). I started this week after a very nice week off visiting friends and family in Philly and NYC. We work 10 hour work days during the summer so that we have Fridays off! I spent most of my time this week getting to know the staff in the office, and observing how things run.