What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Stand a little taller

Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

What doesn't kill you makes a fighter

Footsteps even lighter

Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

I chose this song due to many losses and tramas in my life, that I had to continue to move forward and be stronger.  I also grew up with my father telling me that the pain/ certain challenges would aid in  making me stronger.  

I also thought of the theme song to the show “Friends” and the overall theme of the show.  I have always been there for my friends and would be there for them through anything, and I have a small group of friends like the show where we go through a lot together, and have the best time together, even when life gets hectic and crazy we find ways to laugh and be around each other. 

From a young age, I always knew I wanted to work with people, specifically children.  I remember sitting in Kindergarten on the carpet watching my teacher read stories and the way we all watched her and she made the books come alive.  My neighbor across the street from where I grew up was a Kindergarten teacher and she used to ask me to help her get materials for crafts/ activities, and she always had such fun things to do that I got to try out.  As I went through elementary school I had some pretty amazing and fun teachers.  I had a principal who traveled the world and would invite the students in her office as she shared stories and pictures.  I admired so many teachers in elementary school.  Then I went to middle school and I met some of the worst teachers I would even encounter.  I had a stigma, I was the little sister of a problem student, and was “greeted” that way.  Teachers would make comments about my sibling and myself to me, I had to defend myself daily to teachers, and prove myself as a student.  I vividly remember how these people can be educators as I watched them do this to many other students, and decided that there needed to be change in the system, they can’t be the ones to define education.  In high school I had a mix of teachers, but the ones I bonded with showed me that there was hope in the education field, and continued to help me grow and foster a love for teaching and working with others.  I knew I wanted to work with children in some capacity so that they knew they were supported, loved, valued, and could be safe.  This strong feeling drove my path to becoming a teacher. 

In both Maxine Greene’s “Imagining Futures” article and Aguilar’s Introduction to “Cultivating Emotional Resilience”  the authors discuss teachers stopping to think about their situations and those students around them before reacting.  That the community around a teacher relies on how they respond to the many daily challenges, and influence a teachers’ feeling of burnout and exhaustion.  They both discuss or look at resiliency within teachers, that teachers need to be in control and decide how they will respond to challenges, especially unanticipated or stressful situations.  Teachers that are aware of this and their choices, can help themselves build resiliency and hopefully decrease burnout and exhaustion.  All this will help build the community in the classroom/ school, give students a place where they want to be, and keep them involved.  

~Kelly H

         

- First when I was teaching English I used a lot of music and musicians to showcase the elements of poetry through songs in which students could immediately connect. Tupac's book of poetry was one of the texts I would use consistently to introduce skill work.

-Secondly, this particular poem represents our school and students explicitly. We focus on students that have had an interruption in education at some point, students who face a lot of emotional issues as well as complex traumas. So this poem reflects their lives. The concrete is all those factors that hold students back or down, but with the right environment, community, support, etc, the students (aka the rose) can find a way through. They can find their stride, their motivation, their inner light, etc, also recognized as the crack in the concrete and once through, their next step, their next breath is their choice, they provide themselves the opportunity for options. 

-Lastly, as a school leader I also see this poem as a reflection of our staff. Prior to and due to the pandemic, there's an invisible yet very real weight on everyone's shoulders, the concrete if you will. We are all fighting to find that relief, that crack to somehow get on the other side of things.  

When I first attended college, teaching was not on the table as a viable career option, in fact I started undergrad as a communications major then bounced around into economics, international relations and then back to communications. When I settled back into communications I focused more on global movement and took an interest in the sociology courses such as global ethnographies, the diaspora and deviance. Learning about human behavior historically and world wide became more interesting to me then any other courses I had taken. At the same time I was playing for the Women's Varsity Soccer team and we began volunteering at a local elementary school in the off-season. We would go in once a week and work with groups of students on reading and writing. The teacher of the classroom I was working in told me I had a natural presence with the students and asked if I considered going into education. This was the catalyst for my next steps, a combination of my studies in sociology and the work with the school. I began to look at my options due to the fact that I wouldn’t graduate with an undergraduate degree in education. 

After a few dead ends, I applied and was accepted into a program called the New York City Teaching Fellows. The program worked in conjunction with AmeriCorps to gain more teachers for Title I schools in underserved areas of New York City. They helped subsidize a Master’s Degree in Education, assist in acquiring New York State Teaching License and as a member you were able to teach full time while earning your Masters. I did not intend to stay in New York too much past earning my Masters, however, 14 years later I am still here. In my fifth year of teaching I was asked to help Co-Found the school I currently work in to support the most marginalized high school students in the city. I truly believe due to my education in sociology and my developed passion for this work, I am still continuing and loving the work I do to help new students each year have a potentially better academic experience and preparation for life after high school. 

Greene’s essential message in this section is to find ways in order to develop the whole student and the whole school community. She eludes the detriment of only focusing on standards and benchmarks, and quotes Frances Lucerna saying, “Look what’s happened to reading, writing and arithmetic…these ‘basics’. We don’t see them any longer as life skills. They’re subjects to be taken, subjects outside our experience”. When education no longer connects to real world application students who need to see a correlation between school and life begin to disengage. We as educators need to capture students' attention or as Greene put it, “they were able to extend the grasp of consciousness”, to connect school, with their community and beyond. 

I see a connection to Aguilar’s use of the three conversations. Looking first at individual resilience of the students and the staff and the school community. Secondly, the organizational conditions, how is the school culture set up to engage the students, to intellectually stimulate them as well as infuse life skill work and real world application. Lastly, how are systematic conditions, the district initiatives that need to be completed, presented to the school community in order to fulfill requirements, but also benefit from the data derived from those initiatives in order to reflect and make next step goals for the students and the school community. 

you will bloom fully and then

wilt, only to bloom again.

If we can learn anything from 

flowers it is that resilience is born

even when we feel like we are

dying." 

-"Rebirth" by Alex Elle

 

I have mindfully chosen this poem called "Rebirth" by Alex Elle. It is a nature-inspired poem on change and the cycle of life. Similar to how I feel a teaching year cycle is. As most teachers do, we tend to give our all at the beginning of a school year. And as the school year progresses, our energy starts to fade, yet we do not give up and push through until the year is done. The poem "Rebirth" reminds me that a new beginning exists after every end, and just like the flowers and trees, we must bloom, wilt, and bloom again. 

It was not what made me choose this career, but a who.

From a young age, I knew that there was something different about me. Not only did I know it, but I also felt it. And I was repeatedly told by my teachers that I was never going to be or do something special. 

Since my teachers felt the need to constantly remind me that I was stupid and being dyslexic was a curse and not a gift, I started to believe them. I did not want to stand out, for I was already branded with the big "D". Being quiet, shy, and unnoticeable was what I wanted to become. 

I faded away, and I did not want the rest of the world to acknowledge me or my disability. 

It took me years, and honestly, I am still discovering and understanding that being one of a kind and standing out with this disability is a fantastic thing. I am not looking at it as a curse anymore but as a unique gift that makes me stand out beautifully in this world. 

This shift in attitude I actually gained from a teacher I had. She was the one who stripped down my barriers, demolished my fake front, and taught me how to rebuild myself from the foundation up. She was the one that showed me, by embracing and understanding my individuality, I was actually incredible and unstoppable. Thanks to her, I found my passion and calling to support those who feel not valued, heard, or understood. 

Greene comments that "basic" educational skills are fading into the background and are no longer seen as life skills but just subjects to be taken. And the idea of a " movement focused on the development of the whole human being and the whole community," as Greene states, is seen as essential. This shift from individual silo teaching and surviving to cultivating resilience within the community links with Aguilar's conceptual framework, which has four parts; Who We Are, Where We Are, What We Do, and How We Are. All parts are equally important in a thriving and resilient community. Developing such resiliency skills within school focuses on the whole human being and is essential for all in the community to thrive. 

And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
And I'll rise up
High like the waves
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again

For you
For you
For you
For you...
I am an elementary school counselor and identify with this song so much.  This has been a challenging few years for everyone, and add any personal or family tribulations, it could cause someone to break.  How fitting to talk about teacher resilience because it is something that we really need to focus on in order to best support the needs of our students.  I feel very blessed to have a wonderful support system so that I can "Rise Up" and be there to support the students and staff in my district. 

At a fairly young age I became very interested in Psychology.  I was able to take an elective in high school and ended up studying  psychology in college.  During my second year, my friend's brother died by suicide. He was 2 years younger than us and was just getting ready to start college.  It was such a shock because he was a great student and had a lot of friends.  He always seemed so happy.  It was devastating to see the family mourn their son.  I decided that I was going to become a school psychologist to make sure that every student felt that they had someone they could talk to if they needed to.  I felt that if I could help one child, that would be enough for me.  While looking into school psychology programs, I came across school counseling.  I thought it would be a better fit for me because I would have more time to work with students if I didn't have to spend a lot of my time on testing.  This is my 14th year as a school counselor and I am so glad I made the decision I did.

When reflecting on the readings from this week, both Greene and Aguilar discuss the importance of community.  Greene stresses that the most important undertaking in education is creating a supportive community in the classroom. She also discusses how focusing on benchmarks and standards without thinking about how students can utilize the skills they are learning to "bring about change in their own lives, or in the lives of their families, or in their communities" is basically hindering student outcomes. She discusses the movement that the El Puente school developed that focused on the whole child and whole community. This school saw positive changes in the school- home-community relationships because they were working together for the greater good. Aguilar stress the importance of resiliency in strengthening communities. She states that educators need to build their own resiliency so that children can feel that they are a part of a resilient community. She also states that "in acquiring the individual strategies, resilient educators can then transform their entire classroom as a subset of society, their school as a larger subset and even the larger school district and system." This should be the goal of all educational institutions.

I won't look too far ahead

It's too much for me to take

But break it down to this next breath

This next step

This next choice is one that I can make

So I'll walk through this night

Stumbling blindly toward the light

And do the next right thing

And with the dawn, what comes then

When it's clear that everything will never be the same again?

Then I'll make the choice

To hear that voice

And do the next right thing

I feel this is how I have had to approach life in this pandemic, and this is how my work life feels. But, doing this; doing the next right thing and not looking too far ahead, has made it all feel manageable. I am doing what I need for myself and my students while slowly working through the challenging times. We cannot look too far ahead, because that is overwhelming and taking those small steps to do the next right thing are what keeps us showing up for ourselves and our students. 

I think I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. As a child I would pretend to be a teacher and set all my stuffed animals up on my bed and get out my chalkboard and teach them letters and numbers. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in the education field. It took me a while to figure out where my passion was. I knew I did not want to be a general education teacher because I enjoyed spending my time with students of all ages and developmental levels. I thought maybe I’d want to be a librarian to help students find their love of reading and support them but after a few courses in that field, it wasn’t the right fit. I then started working as a paraeducator in a school (the school I currently teach at) and we had two students with special needs in our class. I was fascinated by all the things I learned in the special education field while working with these students and their team. I ended up meeting with my administration about studying to be a special education teacher and they fully supported me and even hired me as the school’s SRBI interventionist so I could gain experience analyzing data, learning about the tiers of intervention, and working with students who needed extra support or had learning disabilities. The special education teacher I worked with my first year as a paraeducator was someone I admired and wanted to be like when I grew as an educator. She is now one of my best friends and I work alongside her in our special education department. She’s someone who mentors me as an educator, a mom, and someone who always helps me to do the next right thing. I became a special education teacher after four years working at my current school and have been working in the field of special education for six years. Every time I am asked the question of how I knew I wanted to be a teacher or how I got into the field, I think about my first students and mentors and how they inspired me and believed in me. 

Greene’s essential message connects to community and resilience like Aguilar’s introduction. They also mention the communities around teachers and the resilience of teachers and students. The community of a teacher and the way they respond to students and situations connects directly to teacher resiliency and burnout. When a teacher struggles to respond to students or is reactive, it affects the community of the classroom and school climate. When teachers can take a step back and look at situations with a different lens, then they can help themselves to be more resilient to stressful situations. This increase in resiliency will then improve stress and burnout for teachers along with student community and school climate. 

Everybody says, "say something"
Say something, say something
Then say something, say something, then say something

I don't wanna get caught up in the rhythm of it
But I can't help myself, no, I can't help myself, no, no
Caught up in the middle of it
No, I can't help myself, no, I can't help myself, no, no, no
Caught up in the rhythm of it

Maybe I'm looking for something I can't have (maybe I'm looking for something I can't have)
Maybe I'm looking for something I can't have"(J.T. & C.S., 2018).  As a 41-year old women I have experienced a number of traumatic experiences (much like most individuals).  I currently see a deep searing, hot wound in my district and schools around me in general.  For years schools in my area have put temporary band-aids on issues and expected something to change.  Well, it has not and I am so frustrated and angry.  Greene talks about "not succumbing to a feeling of futility" (272).  I feel like my attempts to try to open people's eyes to the suffering of both students and teachers have been physically heard, but never really listened to.  The song I referenced above gives me the drive to keep standing up for the wellness of all individuals in the school.  Even though I have to fight feelings of futility or hopelessness.

My path to education was a roller coaster with twists, turns, drops and accents.  I never wanted to be a teacher because I had seen my mom and grandmother and the toll teaching took on them.  I pursued what I thought would be a much more profitable career with specific, tangible results.  I attended SUNY Plattsburgh and graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Chemistry.  I graduated on a Saturday and started my first "adult" job on Monday at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (presently known as Pfizer) as a Quality Assurance Chemist.  I was making top dollar with amazing benefits and stock options.  What I didn't realize was how boring and lonely the job would be.  I left the job after a year to pursue a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Vermont.  Again I was involved in lab work, but this time with the added commitments of taking classes and teaching nursing students aseptic technique and bacterial identification.  Let's just say I put 100% into the teaching assignment and let everything else slack.  After a year at UVM, I transferred to SUNY Plattsburgh and graduated with my M.S. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction in 2006 with my sister who graduated with her undergraduate degree on the same day!  Long story short I was hired at my old high school Seton Catholic where I spent 2 years teaching Regents Earth Science.  In search of a public school job I landed one at Stafford Middle School in Plattsburgh, NY.  I was still teaching Earth Science with thoughts of getting biology classes in the future.  After that year I suffered a personal tragedy and with  only one bag of stuff I moved to a state I had never been before and had no family there - North Carolina.  I got a teaching job there in an urban school, which I was not prepared for.  Teachers had to be escorted to their cars by police officers because several individuals had been shot around the school.  My new friend, Maggie, was murdered when a man followed her to a gas station, grabbed her and 13 days later the police found her body.  Shaken to the core, I moved back to Plattsburgh and lived with my parents.  I was lucky to get a Regents Living Environment teaching position at a local high school and have been there ever since.  I am currently in my 17th year of teaching.

Emotional resilience is something I try to build up in myself, my students and my colleagues as much as I can. I am currently co-teaching a leadership class that uses curriculum through Sweethearts and Heroes, which brings leadership training, bully prevention and the 5 SEL competencies to the classroom via sharing circles. Honestly, this class is the only thing keeping me from leaving my job right now. I believe all educators and students need opportunities like this class to grow, learn and thrive in our world today. I was thrilled to read Greene's comments on community and the need for inventing situations where all of us can come together, see the humanity in all of us and use this a springboard to dramatically change the educational culture and system for the better. If we don't do this now I fear that there will be an exodus of teachers and the mental health workers will be overwhelmed with student and teacher trauma. I believe that Greene's thoughts tie in well with the article on resilience. Aguilar's introduction acknowledges the need for change and identification of realities within a school and community. Stress is a killer if chronic and not treated. High cortisol levels can reek havoc on the body physically, emotionally and mentally. I believe that the combination of Greene's and Aguilar's writings are powerful and give all of us a call to action.

on the back of the wind   

and floats downstream   

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

 

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and   

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

 

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own

 

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams   

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream   

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied   

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

As an African American, the author experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination, which she often hints at in her writing. Like her, many students from diverse contexts that never experienced individualized, independent, and self-directed learning struggle with analytical tasks or using their minds to process information effectively. Such students feel oppressed by the curriculum, marginalized, academically abandoned, and invisible in the class. 

The theme of the poem deals with freedom and oppression. The title ‘caged bird’ indicates the image of restrictions. These lines culled from the poem call out the dominant-culture context in which all teaching and learning is situated.

It speaks of the underprivileged African American communities and the other minorities trapped inside the cage. All it could do is to open its throat and sing aloud fearfully of freedom never experienced, but it knows that there is a better life outside the cage and does not stop from desperately wanting freedom. A bird nature is meant to fly, which indicates freedom. This free bird represents the privileged ‘white’ American community with the freedom to fly anywhere without restrictions. The world belonged to them, and they do whatever they like. The caged bird is denied dreams, breeze, and fat worms, which represents hope and opportunities.  

B) I grew up under my parents, who valued education. I was when missionary schools were withdrawn from their original handlers and subsequently run by the government. There was a noticeable fall in the standard of education in my local, and I was a victim of incessant school transfers as many Parents who valued education resorted to withdrawing their children from government-run schools. I experienced the menace of repeated withdrawal and subsequent transfer to a private school with the continued struggle to close the achievement gap. I struggled with analytical tasks till I graduated from college. I became challenged to contribute my quota towards educational leadership and turned to teach. However, as an elementary school teacher, I witnessed that the pedagogy is not designed for individualized learning as it works for the west, the reason students struggle with analytical reading. As a classroom teacher, I have witnessed many school children experience difficulty calming and focusing their minds during teaching and learning periods. More often, they are prone to misbehave, interrupt teaching schedules when they act out. Such children are frequently tardy and have higher rates of suspension and other disciplinary measures. Over time, I discovered that tardiness causes students to feel disconnected from school, leading to further behavior problems and dropouts. Meeting such vulnerable children’s needs inspired me to be informed and armed with the necessary skills and resources to serve these children in school. In quest of answers for these disparities, I turned to research further, looking to culturally responsive teaching as a way to close achievement gaps.  

C) Seeking how we can transform our schools, Greene expresses the desire for building communities that democratically serve a responsive instructional leadership “where there can be dialogue and exchanges of all kinds in which persons can speak in their idioms, avoiding the formulaic, the artificial, and the ‘sound-bite.” However, school leaders must engage in mindful conversations on how cultivating resilience can transform our schools between this intention and its execution. Three conversations that focus on “Individual resilience, Organizational conditions, and systemic conditions” so that we can build and strengthen the kinds of communities in which we can thrive, where we can engage in professional development that allows us to reflect on worn own biases, and where we can observe and learn from each other.

 

1-Although I questioned this choice some, I quickly realized that the 80’s classic show, Punky Brewster (one of my favorites also!) shared many themes with my work life.  Punky was a child who had gone through so much, at such a young age, like several of my students.  She was often misunderstood and had a passion for life, creativity and was a kind, loving soul.  Punky found herself in some situations that I could not grasp at a young age, as my life was quite different than hers, but now as an adult, supporting students from a broad range of backgrounds, I can appreciate her resiliency (through her classic “Punky Power!”).  Punky was always there to help, but was open to getting help for herself, similar to my current role.  She tried to make the best of every situation, looking for the bright side.  She had her support network (adoptive father, best friend and her grandmother, dog, friends, teachers) by her side, who helped her in challenging situations.  Punky reminds me of several students.  You never truly know what some of our students are going through until you get a peek into their home life.  In my eyes, in the past and now, she exemplifies resiliency.

 

2-When I was young, I had a cousin who was older, and I always knew there was something “different” about her.  She was treated the same as any other cousin.  It wasn’t until I was older that I understood that she had special needs.  Unfortunately, for her, she grew up in Portugal where she didn’t have the resources she needed to thrive, and when her family came to the United States, it was difficult for them to access support due to their language barrier.  Luckily, the family who spoke English were able to assist, getting her the resources she needed.  She is now living a happy, productive life.  I was always close to her, and she motivated me to support individuals and their families in accessing the support they need.  I decided to pursue studies in the education field, specifically in Special Education.  

Although ultimately, I did not become a special education teacher, I am currently in a place in my career where I still provide supports to students who are both in special and regular education.  I am also able to assist families whose first language is not English and may have difficulty navigating the US/Connecticut education system.  In the education field, as Greene stated in the article, we forget that facts are data.  This reminds me that most educators only have the opportunity to support students during the academic day, and do not get a glimpse of home life.  Being on the other side of this, I understand that that data does not represent the whole child/student/person.  It may or not represent one piece of their life.  

 

 

3-Greene’s message connects with Aguilar’s introduction through resiliency and change.  Greene notes the use of using skills to bring about change, starting individually, then through others, bringing the community together.  Aguliar discusses how we interpret challenges and respond.  There is a brief moment where we cultivate resiliency.  This moment can be a lesson as many students and adults are watching, and taking it in.  Tempers can flare and be tested, but the way in which we react affects the community.  A positive, neutral reaction to circumstances can inspire others to also be positive, and supportive.  

I have been an educator for the past eleven years, but have been working with children ever since I was 14-years-old. I began as a martial arts instructor, and found that I really enjoyed teaching. I worked with students ranging in age from as young as 4-years-old to adults. As I approached college, I knew that I wanted to continue teaching and decided to study childhood education. The program at NYU was a dual one; childhood and special education. Prior to entering college, I hadn’t really given much thought to special ed. I envisioned teaching in a general education setting at the elementary level. However, as I began my program, more specifically student teaching, I was surprised to find that I preferred working in small groups with students with disabilities. Once I decided to work in special education, I never looked back. I truly enjoy helping this population and serving as an advocate for them. 

Greene’s essential message in this section is to educate in such a way that brings about a shared community. Greene writes, “the creation of communities in classrooms may be one of the most difficult and yet the most essential undertakings in the schools of the future” (273). She further explains Alfred Schütz’s idea of a “common vivid present” and “we-relation”. This is when people communicate in such a way, that through their communication, they feel as though they are undergoing a collective experience. In reaching a common vivid present, people are able to grow together. If educators can facilitate the creation of a successful classroom community, then students can work together toward shared growth. Greene’s ideas connect with Aguilar’s Introduction to “Cultivating Emotional Resilience” in the idea of building a resilient community, in which all students feel a sense of belonging. Aguilar states, “We must cultivate resilience so that all children feel that they belong to a resilient community, so that all children graduate and are eligible for the college or career of their choice, and so that all children have an expansive tool set to contribute to our society” (Aguilar 4). The importance of community is emphasized in both readings, to lead students to success. In addition, Aguilar discusses three conversations we must engage in to consider how cultivating resilience can transform schools: (1) individual resilience, (2) organizational conditions, and (3) systemic conditions. Once individual resilience is boosted, then teachers will have more energy to address organizational and systemic conditions, which overall builds and strengthens communities.

Here comes a wave meant to wash me away
 A tide that is taking me under
 Swallowing sand, left with nothing to say
 My voice drowned out in the thunder
 
 [Pre-Chorus]
 But I won't cry
 And I won't start to crumble
 Whenever they try
 To shut me or cut me down
 
 [Chorus]
 I won't be silenced
 You can't keep me quiet
 Won't tremble when you try it
 All I know is I won't go speechless
 'Cause I'll breathe
 When they try to suffocate me
 Don't you underestimate me
 'Cause I know that I won't go speechless
 
 [Verse 2]
 Written in stone
 Every rule, every word
 Centuries old and unbending
 "Stay in your place"
 "Better seen and not heard"
 But now that story is ending

 

Again, I reflect on these words.  I strongly believe that the change in education is needed.  Together we should see the cries of our students and our teachers begging for caring and nurturing supports.  We don’t need the system to suffocate us or cut us down.  We need to be reborn with our sense of efficacy and resilience that has been buried by power, exams, and data.  We work together to drive the urge and the story of traditional education can end and we gain our cultural resiliency.

As a young child I was not sure exactly what I wanted to be but knew that I loved helping others; those 2 legged and 4 legged friends.  As a junior in high school, great in science and math I knew my calling was in that avenue.  I didn’t want to be a teacher at that time, I saw the stressors of teachers and I had some negative experiences with my own teachers judging my work just from my last name.  I set in my mind to stay away from the human relationships and care about the animals.  I wanted to explore being a vet.  This vision was clear to me until my guidance counselor told me I just wasn’t smart enough to do that.  Keep in mind I was in the top 10 of my class!  I struggled with my own sense of worth and ended up going to college for Small Animal Science.  At the end of my freshmen year in college I changed route to Pre-Med instead of Veterinary Medicine.  I was good in my courses, but the feeling of self-doubt was always there.  Graduating early with my degree, I still wasn’t sure what to do.  I had done work hours at the local hospital and loved helping my patients.  I applied to a master’s program in Physician Assistant studies.  I was given an interview to the program; excited to learn more I went.  There I was judged for an undergrad course grade:  I received a C.  I told them I understood the materials; I just couldn’t figure out how to write it in a way that was acceptable for the professor.  Even with hours in tutoring help, getting help from my roommate who had an A in the course, and meeting with the professor again.  I spoke of my pathway and how I tried to overcome the challenge; but to my dismay I was labeled and knocked down; it wasn’t what they were looking for in a student.  I was done.  I wanted no part of it.  I returned home, no goal for a pathway.  I knew I had to get a job, so I started substituting at the local schools.  6 months of doing this I applied to a master’s in education program and landed my first teaching job a year later.  

I love helping my students obtain their thirst for knowledge, but as I said my sense of wanting to help in a bigger picture led me to the pathway of seeking out more knowledge to support and push the change that we all know must occur in education.  As I reflect on the articles, I found the voice in my head saying yes, I am not alone. Greene points out that teachers must “come together in such a way that each one feels a responsibility for naming the humane and the desirable and moving together to attain them.”  Agreed, but how do we gain the sense of urgency that others want to move together?  I struggle pushing change with only a small pod of educators supporting my efforts; how do we gain more leverage?  Reading more of Greene’s words spoke to me “feeling in touch with something larger than awakened a visionary power.  But, feeling the changes in themselves and those around,…”  The words she spoke describe that internal feeling I have had; I want to help others learn and I want to cause the change so many of us long for.  Diving into Elena Aguilar’s article Onward I found the connections to Greene and my own values.  Arguilar states “The opportunity for resilience originates in how we make sense of the things that happen, because interpretation dictates actions.”  We need to stop and interpret change.  Welcome the voices even if they are not the same as our own, because together as we plan for change, we are resilient together.  As this resonates, she states “Change is a given in life, how you respond is within your control.”  It is in educators’ control to better our climate; for ourselves and for our students.  We need to return to our efficacy and develop more skills of resiliency.  We start the change with ourselves that will boost our change in our organization.  Under the framework of the 3 conversations, we must have for transformation it provides us with the start points.  Risky conversations but needed.  Individuals can follow the resiliency framework together to increase our abilities to manage the stressors we face.  Because who we are, what we do, how we do it and where this occurs matter toward the learned habits of resiliency.  We are together stronger with this movement to making a more desirable, understandable, and kind world around us.  
 

From even before I could remember, I had a calling to teach.  My parents have several home videos of me at a young age gathering up all my stuffed animals and singing or talking to them while I sat on a stool in front of the silent and fluffy group.  As I got older, school was a favorite game among my first friends, and one that was more forcibly played with my younger siblings as I “taught” them the same songs and lectures I shared with my stuffed animals.  In high school, I landed my first job, when I turned 16, in a daycare program as an afternoon support staff.  This is where I really started to fell my desire to teach and wanted to pursue an education degree.  It was difficult for me to decide on a subject area or grade level that I wanted to focus my studies on when I reached college, since the school didn’t offer a degree in early education at the time.  I enjoyed the core education classes that I was taking, but really had a hard time accepting the concept of the public education system (state testing, etc.).  I also wasn’t ready to let go of the idea of working in early education, and I soon found an extraordinary love for the study of the mind.  I ended up receiving a BA in Psychology, with a focus on child and adolescent development, and the psychology of learning and abnormal behaviors.  On campus there was a phenomenal early education program where I worked and received my first experiences with the idea of intentional practice and social-emotional learning.  It was this focus on the individual child and working with the child, at their level of development, that I began to create a vision for where I saw myself as a professional.  I had always known that I wanted to be an educator, and that I wanted to work with young children, but I also knew that I wanted to do more than just teach or work for the common corporate-style childcare that we all know.  I ended up working as a preschool teacher for many years, and worked my way up to the assistant director of a therapeutic childcare program where we focused we were highly trained in trauma informed practices.  It was in this position I feel that I reached where I wanted to be as a professional, and being part of a program that strives for success in the community’s most vulnerable population.  It took a long time to find what I was looking for out of my career, but I feel that with my experience and with the knowledge that I will gain from this program, I am on the right track to the career I imagined I would have.     

In Green’s article Imagining futures, she states that the ‘basics’ of education are fading out and are no longer seen as life skills.  What is more important and relevant for the future of public education, is turning to the community and developing curriculum and school atmosphere that supports what is happening in the community and encouraging its’ members to join together to create a “visionary power”.  This connects to Agulair’s introduction to Cultivating Emotional Resilience, in the way we first must recognize that the systems that are currently in place within school districts, are currently setting teachers up for failure.  These are practices that should start to fade out of the education system in an effort to support, and keep, good educators in the field.  Focusing on building resilience in educators and examining what measures need to be met in order to create a better environment for teachers/educators to work in.  When we make these adjustments, we are able to be more present in the classroom, make better connections with our students, and maintain a better professional relationship in a supportive work environment. 

Cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Don't worry about a thing,

'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Rise up this mornin',

Smiled with the risin' sun,

Three little birds

Pitch by my doorstep

Singin' sweet songs

Of melodies pure and true,

Sayin' "This is my message to you" 

The song sends a message of positivity and reassurance that “everything is gonna be alright” I think of my son, the baby I am carrying and my students as the three little birds mentioned in the song because of their constant beautiful presence in my life and the gentle reminded of the beautiful things I have in my life. Sure our jobs have challenging moments and I’d be lying if I said that everything is perfect, however, what happens in my classroom with my students, and the beautiful family I have at home remind me every day that I matter and that what I do matters too. I choose every single day to focus on that, and it has helped me so much in the last few years. 

What called me to become a teacher is the love I have for children. I’ve always had an abundance of empathy and sympathy for everyone in my life which till today I believe are the most important qualities in a teacher. I used to work in the corporate world, in a cubicle, and in my mid-twenties I decided I could not do it anymore. Initially, I went to school for business, but my mind continued to wander into the education field. Once I was accepted into the education program I never looked back. I decided to also major in Spanish being that I am Latina, and bilingual. I can’t thank myself enough for making the decision to pursue a college in education and become a Spanish teacher. Sure there are the downfalls and moments when I don’t know how I will continue, but I think of my family and students and that is truly what keeps me going every day. 

Greene highlights how a community comes together for a common purpose and creating a supportive positive community in a classroom. Aguilar mentions coming together as a community and the resilience of educators and students. Both Greene and  Aguilar are shedding light on the importance of using resilience and the ability to come together as the foundation of our working environment. My hope is that this is something that is cultivated in the buildings I work in and throughout our nation to prevent things such as teacher burnout and destructive environments for both teachers and students.