If there is one need in education, it is that beginning teachers should have more courage. They are entering unknown, uncharted territory - but only for themselves.
Ahead are challenges. There are potholes. Great chasms into which a teacher may headfirst fall. There are precipices, roadblocks, and great stones of discouragement, but, like that great twentieth century philosopher, Poison, once told us:
Ahead are challenges. There are potholes. Great chasms into which a teacher may headfirst fall. There are precipices, roadblocks, and great stones of discouragement, but, like that great twentieth century philosopher, Poison, once told us:
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn
Some people are discouraged too easily by failure. In fact, too many give up without trying. Kim Bearden has written in her book, Crash Course, about striving for courage. She fully understands, after almost three decades as an educational professional, that a teacher's courage is something that either develops or it doesn't. Working with Ron Clark to build and build up the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, Kim and Ron often take courage to new levels. They live - or at least portray living as - fearlessly, taking students to new heights and beyond borders. No dream is too big and no kid is too lost in their world.
[W]hen we are able to embrace the support of others, take a deep breath, and face our anxieties, the feeling of accomplishment is profound. Sometimes we have to ease in just one step at a time, but as we overcome each small challenge, our courage grows.
But how often do we fail in our dreams because of our fears?
New teachers allow anxiety to weigh them down. My own career had a timid start, beginning in an inner city fifth grade center, populated predominantly by minorities with very different backgrounds and experiences from my own. The first professional inservice I sat in was delivered by the Oklahoma City Police Department. One of the first handouts I was given explained how to recognized gang sign language. I was told how to take a weapon from a hostile person. The principal even hired me, partially because I drove a Ford: he told me people liked to steal Chryslers from the parking lot in broad daylight. You think that didn't raise anxieties?
Then there were the times when I had to change schools or grade levels with little notice - four times in my first five years. There were the foreboding observations by principals, confrontations with contentious kids, emergencies on the playground, shootings in the neighborhood, interviews with media, and the ever-menacing parent contacts.
All in all, this is a profession unlike many others, among the most stressful careers a person can choose. I don't say that for attention or pity, but to encourage others to keep moving forward. Undoubtedly, different teachers feel different pressures and stresses, and they feel them in different ways, but we all become anxious for something - several times a year, and we don't/can't always leave those things in the past.
In fact, I think Mrs. Bearden agrees that we learn from those situations. We learn that our reactions were unfounded, that our reactions were inappropriate, or (rarely) that our reactions were true. The point is, if we are to continue and be successful, we learn from those times. Bearden's conclusion is this:
New teachers allow anxiety to weigh them down. My own career had a timid start, beginning in an inner city fifth grade center, populated predominantly by minorities with very different backgrounds and experiences from my own. The first professional inservice I sat in was delivered by the Oklahoma City Police Department. One of the first handouts I was given explained how to recognized gang sign language. I was told how to take a weapon from a hostile person. The principal even hired me, partially because I drove a Ford: he told me people liked to steal Chryslers from the parking lot in broad daylight. You think that didn't raise anxieties?
Then there were the times when I had to change schools or grade levels with little notice - four times in my first five years. There were the foreboding observations by principals, confrontations with contentious kids, emergencies on the playground, shootings in the neighborhood, interviews with media, and the ever-menacing parent contacts.
All in all, this is a profession unlike many others, among the most stressful careers a person can choose. I don't say that for attention or pity, but to encourage others to keep moving forward. Undoubtedly, different teachers feel different pressures and stresses, and they feel them in different ways, but we all become anxious for something - several times a year, and we don't/can't always leave those things in the past.
In fact, I think Mrs. Bearden agrees that we learn from those situations. We learn that our reactions were unfounded, that our reactions were inappropriate, or (rarely) that our reactions were true. The point is, if we are to continue and be successful, we learn from those times. Bearden's conclusion is this:
Stop allowing your fears to paralyze you from enjoying the magnificent blessings all around you.
Eventually, we learn to be bolder, to dream bigger, to follow through, and to live our lives. Probably our problems don't mean as much to other people as they do to us living in our personal bubbles. I know I have grown immensely in my abilities as a teacher. Make mistakes? Definitely I do, and sometimes my acknowledgment of those mistakes don't mean anything to the people on the other end, but I must still learn from it. And with each one, I hope to continue to grow and thrive.
