Why do I teach?"What does it feel like when you're dancing? Don't know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going... then I like, forget everything. And... sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I've got this fire in my body. I'm just there. Flyin' like a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity. " Why I teachA student learns something about himself. . . .Another is embraced when crying or laughing in class. . . A word of confidence is whispered into a struggling student's ear. . . One child is called to stay after class to say he is forgiven for his mistake. . .And this student who gave up on the class completes a two week long project that is displayed in front of the entire school. . .Believing in a student even after he has a hormonal outburst in the class and he believes in himself just a little more. . . Two students who say they will never learn Chumash are seen tugging for the last copy which holds a clue to a riddle. . . These experiences are the magic of my first year teaching that I experienced at Harkham Hillel Academy teaching middle school Judaics.
If those examples are not convincing as to why I teach, let me analogize my situation to Billy Elliot. Just like Billy Elliot and dancing, teaching can be stiff. It can be when I live by presumptions that children are insufficient as they are and I have to make them better. That a student needs to be put in his or her place. Forcing a student to learn because the class has to complete the lesson today. That doesn't work for me. Yet when I tap into my strengths of sensitivity, playfulness, keen judgement, and creativity, the art of connecting to the student takes over and the possibilities of learning open up. I am part of the range of student potential and still see them for the best that they can be. And then they see that about themselves. This is why I went into teaching. So I forget that I am in a classroom with twenty 8th grade boys just like they forgot that they would rather be any place other than my class. I think that I am dancing and that impossible feeling becomes possible only in teaching. |
PORTFOLIOA journey through my teachingLet me take you on the journey of my first year teaching at Harkham Hillel Academy.
I taught Chumash, Navi, Gemara and Halacha, and Tefillah to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys and girls. |