Preparing For The Future

Yesterday, one of my principals sent out an email to meet in the gym after school for the full-staff after-school professional development. When we arrived we weren't sure what to expect, especially when the vice principal of another school who was there to help mediate told us to line up elbow-to-elbow across the length of the gym floor. As we stood from one wall to the other, he told us that he was about to read from a list of statements and if they applied to us we had to follow the directions to either move forward or backward a step.

The list included statements such as,

• If you ever completely skipped a meal because there was no food at your home, take one step back.
• If anyone in your life ever told you they believed in you, take one step forward.
• If any member of your family has ever combated an addiction of some sort, take one step back.
• If one of your parents has a university degree, take one step forward.
• If both of your parents have a university degree, take one step forward.

By the end of the entire list of statements, our whole staff was spread the width of the gym. We were given some reflection questions and then instructed to meet back in the library to discuss and continue the activity where we could talk in our grade level/content teams. 

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Every Monday and Wednesday a student from UNC comes in to observe/do some teaching. He started coming into my classes last year and has done a great job in the rough situation that middle schools such as this present. He has been growing more comfortable in front of the classes, and last year even a had some days where he taught for the entire class period or even worked with the classes when I was gone instead of doing the usual movie/sub lesson plans.

The smallest class I teach is my (mostly) seventh grade choir at one school. Since we were on an early release/PD schedule this Monday, our UNC friend wasn't with us. Instead, the class of eighteen decided we should have what I like to call "family discussion" about his role in our class. Last time he had been there, some of the students weren't too crazy about the exercises he was having them do in warm ups and ended up getting in quite a bit of trouble due to their lack of participation, focus, and engagement.

In our family discussion, we talked about his role in our classroom and how he is going to school to try and be a music teacher when he grows up. We talked about how he has to go through training before he can be a real teacher just like other professions do similar things. I then went around the room and started asking the class what they want to individually be when they grew up. Most of them either hesitated or didn't know when I asked them but others responded with jobs like a teacher or performer.

I then asked the roughest girl in the class--the eighth grader who I have had numerous conversations with to try and convince that even though she is "cool" in the rest of the school and the rest of the kids are "geeks" or whatever you want to call them, any relationships that are made in our room can be kept secret if she wants as long as she treats people like humans during class. Her response to future career? A doctor.

I was amazed to hear a response from her and went with that. She wasn't sure what age group she wanted to help, but I asked her what she would think if she had to go get a surgery and her doctor had never had any practice on anyone. I then switched it for everyone and asked what they would think if they went to a dentist who had never practiced and you needed to get a tooth pulled. They laughed when I pretended to act it out, "Oops, wrong tooth! Let me try again!...Drat! I missed it again!"

After class, as they were leaving, a few different students came up to me on their own and told me that no one has never asked them what they want to be when they grow up before.

No one.

I remember growing up and having to write my future plans in every single grade, complete with illustration. There were times I wanted to be an astronaut, the first lady president, or a WNBA player (or a teacher, obviously!) but at least someone wanted to know.

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As our faculty meeting continued, we continued to remove the lens and look at the hidden rules in society that seem to govern the interactions among all those involved, especially considering minorities and different ethnicities.While we don't have to feel guilty about our lives or where we ended up on the basketball court, we need to keep in mind the difference between our plans of travel for the furlough days v. our students trying to figure out whether they will get to eat on that day since school will not be providing meals.

One of the biggest quotes that hit me in the discussions as we compared our results to how they relate to our local community and student population was, "It is our job as educators to prepare kids for their future, not for our pasts."