Inspiration

This is a quote I tell my GED students a lot.  I think it is perfect for just about any type of learner, but helps them in particular.  I think every teacher should truly believe this.

Refreshing

I had such a wonderful learning/teaching experience today in my GED class!  One of our students who graduated from the program last fall came to visit because she needed some guidance on an essay.  She is now enrolled in the local community college and stops in every once and a while for some help.  A year ago she had not yet finished her high school education and she is now just about to finish her second semester of college on the Dean's List.  She is the epitome of a success story.  I had a Social Studies lesson planned but she ended up helping lead a discussion on some tips and tricks for taking the GED.  As much as I can talk and try to convince the students how important these classes are, hearing from a peer that has just recently passed the tests speaks volumes.  We ended up having a great talk about how and why people make the choices that they do.  I always try and stress the fact that we all complete our education in a lot of different ways - but that the important thing is that we continue learning.  The students I work with find themselves in the positions that they are in for an incredible variety of reasons.  What we try and focus on during class is  a way to validate all of their experiences, while still moving forward.  The visiting student had great advice for everyone in the class and the students had so many questions for her.  It was a really interesting learning opportunity for everyone.  It also reminded me of my limitations as a teacher, and how my students can be experts at things I never will be. 

Baby Steps

Teaching GED classes has been simultaneously the most difficult and most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life.  I have never understood perseverance and dedication in the way I do now.  I have also never experienced defeat and frustration quite like I have alongside my students.  I fell into this internship completely by accident.  I had wanted to work in a museum, and if it weren't for the kind and wise words of the coordinator (and now friend) that said "I think you would prefer this...." I don't know where I would be.  I am thankful everyday for this falling into my lap.  I am also thankful for the trust that the staff at my internship has put into me to be able to run with some of my ideas. 

One of the things that has been the most challenging while teaching these classes is how to structure the lessons.  I have one hour to cover a single topic from one of five subjects in as much detail as possible.  I also have to make it engaging, interesting, and relevant.  An experienced teacher would probably roll their eyes at my surprise.  Of course these are the things you have to do while planning a lesson, which I now understand so much better.  The trick with my GED classes is that I cannot built on lessons we have done in the past, or carry things over from day to day, because each day and each class contains different students.  This is partly because some students can only come on certain days during the week, and partly because some students come very sporadically.  I attempted a lesson on World War II propaganda the other day that crashed and burned.  I was so excited about what I had prepared, but had overlooked the fact about how much background information we would need to cover to get on the same page.  I'm constantly learning just as much as my students are. 

Books I Love Right Now

My Spring Break reading was "Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together" by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent.  I am, admittedly, a huge sap.  There are certain TV commercials (the new Fancy Feast proposal spot) or quotes (anything about succeeding in the future by Dr. Seuss) that can get me choked up.  That being said, I can only remember a handful of times that  book has actually brought me to tears.

This book is true story about a trio of unlikely friends.  Ron, the author, and his wife begin volunteering at a local homeless shelter.  During one of their first weeks at the shelter, Ron's wife gets the strong and unreasonable feeling that her husband needs to befriends of the unruly clients.  Through several attempts, and many more errors than successes, Denver (the client) begins to warm up to Ron.  I think that the reason this story struck a chord with me is because of my work teaching GED classes.  Many of the students I work with are temporarily homeless or highly at-risk.  Reading a story about someone that I never knew existed, but seeing in him so many of the people that have become very close to me, pulled at my heartstrings.  The struggles and challenges of individuals that find themselves homeless are terrifying and heartbreaking.  It makes me greatly question the system that we live in.  At the same time, I also see the work that I do with my GED students as the beginning of a way out of a terribly vicious cycle.

This story has very deep roots in the religious beliefs of Ron and his wife, and how their faith helped them through some very difficult times and relationships.  At first I was worried that I would be too distracted by this to dive into the story, but it was completely the opposite.  I was shocked at the honesty and transparency that their faith gave them.  Read this now!!