After 5 years and 5 months in the classroom, I have decided to leave teaching. However, this post will not be about my last day of teaching, which will be February 6th, but instead about my first day of teaching, which was August 13th, 2009. When Clara Patterson hired me in the summer of 2009, she gave me a chance to experience the magic of being an educator. As a 25 year old who had just recently plummeted reluctantly from the top of the ivory tower, I needed a job and teaching sounded like... well, a job. I was unashamedly scared to death. Like probably many of you reading this, I had never experienced the perspective of the teacher, and it sounded like a challenge that even Frodo Baggins, having just escaped death from the summit of Weathertop after facing the Nazgul for the first time, would have turned down. But like Frodo Baggins, I made a promise to Gandalf that I would bear the burden of the Ring of Power and destroy it properly at Mount Doom. Or something like that. I took the job and from that day forth became Mr. D and/or Coach D and/or Mr. Daughtry and sometimes just D. On the first day of teaching, I learned what most students in public education go through, but from the perspective of the teacher. Everyday I saw poverty, loss, judgement, and pain. But also everyday I saw friendship, compassion, loyalty, and endurance. It was a remarkable experience. On the first day, I also met people who would become mentors, colleagues, and friends. People like Graham Laur and Carissa Navarro, among others. While they mostly taught me that it is important to remain both positive and cynical at the same time, they also taught me that teaching can be the most challenging of vices. That teaching is, ultimately, a strange sort of curse that attaches itself to you once you have unleashed it. It can eat your soul and make the worst of you, or it can fill you with endless happiness. And if it hasnt done both by the end of 3rd period, you arent doing it right. One of my most important mentors as a teacher was Barb T Williams. She stepped into my classroom and somehow managed to convince me that I had natural teaching talent... and then she showed me how to use it. She worked harder for some teachers, including myself, than many parents do for their children, and I thank her for that. Also on that first day of teaching, and in the many days after that, I met the most important people you can meet as a teacher: your students. Over the course of 5 years and 5 months teaching, I have had the privilege of teaching over 600 students. I couldnt possibly list them all in this post. To continue the Lord Of The Rings analogy from earlier, you were all, collectively, my Samwise Gamgee. Encouraging me, leading me, inspiring me. Showing me that even in the unforgiving landscape of Emyn Muil (In-Class Essays), the stinking, horrific sludge of the Dead Marshes (poetry analysis), and the ever-watchful, searching eye of the Eye of Sauron (AP/Benchmark tests), that there is always the Shire and greenness and sunshine (summer break). So, thank you. I could not have cast that dreadful Ring of Power into the heart of the mountain without you. Come to think of it, who in this analogy is Gollum? The pitiful, heartless creature whose conflicted existence is a product of both his own careless nature and the frightening consequences of unending power? Hmm. Ill just leave that part out... In summation, I will say this about my first day of teaching. I walked into the classroom not wanting to fill vials but to ignite fires, as Yeats demanded. It was an idealistic vision (duh, Yeats) and I ended up having to do way too much filling and not near enough igniting, which is ultimately what caused me to leave the classroom. But I can walk away proud, knowing that the fires I ignited in many of students are now roaring, higher than ever.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:59:45 +0000
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