Finding a Voice
Monday, December 19, 2005
on being an educator
My friend Dale is in her second year as a college instructor. Today she posted this on her blog:
Classes are finished and I cannot believe how many amazing gifts my students gave to me. My Native Studies class gave me a beautiful cedar quill box and inside each student wrote the most encouraging notes that make me cry everytime I read them. You always wonder if you are getting through and making a difference and if what you are saying is making an impact; I am so glad to know that it did. Each card and little gift are a reminder to me that I need to continue to be faithful and know that even me, a little Indian, can make a difference. How thankful I am to God for this opportunity. I sure love my job and my students. I am so overwhelmingly blessed.
Dale was my student a few years ago. How many? Her first class with me was my first semester teaching here in 1998. Wow -- 8 years. Since that first Literature and Composition class Dale has gone on to finish her BA and then an MA in Counselling. I have watched and sometimes helped her wrestle with some very hard things in life, including her identity as a woman and as a First Nations person. She's now working as an Academic Advisor, happily married as of June, bought her first house, pursuing another Master's degree, and wondering about further education. Wow. She has accomplished so much, yet I also see that she is still only beginning.
Though I am still beginning, too, I am also a little further down the path, so this is what I wrote to Dale:
Here's something to look forward to as an educator: someday you'll get to watch your students graduate and go into the world ... and live their lives and you'll marvel that you got to be an integral part of their formation. This is how I feel when I look at people like you, Dale. Sometimes it feels like a dream that I ever taught you in classes, especially when I see where you are now. When did you know you wanted to be a teacher? Preparation time is important in and of itself, but when you get to blossom into what you were preparing for it's amazing for the rest of us to stand on the sidelines cheering wildly!
Classes are finished and I cannot believe how many amazing gifts my students gave to me. My Native Studies class gave me a beautiful cedar quill box and inside each student wrote the most encouraging notes that make me cry everytime I read them. You always wonder if you are getting through and making a difference and if what you are saying is making an impact; I am so glad to know that it did. Each card and little gift are a reminder to me that I need to continue to be faithful and know that even me, a little Indian, can make a difference. How thankful I am to God for this opportunity. I sure love my job and my students. I am so overwhelmingly blessed.
Dale was my student a few years ago. How many? Her first class with me was my first semester teaching here in 1998. Wow -- 8 years. Since that first Literature and Composition class Dale has gone on to finish her BA and then an MA in Counselling. I have watched and sometimes helped her wrestle with some very hard things in life, including her identity as a woman and as a First Nations person. She's now working as an Academic Advisor, happily married as of June, bought her first house, pursuing another Master's degree, and wondering about further education. Wow. She has accomplished so much, yet I also see that she is still only beginning.
Though I am still beginning, too, I am also a little further down the path, so this is what I wrote to Dale:
Here's something to look forward to as an educator: someday you'll get to watch your students graduate and go into the world ... and live their lives and you'll marvel that you got to be an integral part of their formation. This is how I feel when I look at people like you, Dale. Sometimes it feels like a dream that I ever taught you in classes, especially when I see where you are now. When did you know you wanted to be a teacher? Preparation time is important in and of itself, but when you get to blossom into what you were preparing for it's amazing for the rest of us to stand on the sidelines cheering wildly!
posted by Colleen McCubbin at 12:13 PM
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