This piece was written at my writing group today:
As I went through my teaching career I took a lot of courses that were required in order to get my Masters degree. Having received my degree there was no requirement for me to take anymore classes or courses other than those suggested by the district as inservice courses, based on some programs the district was trying to implement. But I had other interests. I was a musician. I played guitar in my class and sang with them as a self-taught guitarist. I utilized the music staff in my district to learn other instruments like violin and other string instruments. I was also interested in sign language. Again I taught myself some basic stuff from books, videos and a basic inservice course, but there was so much more that I wanted to learn.
So I was pleased with the district allowing me to take undergraduate courses at Suffolk Community College for credit, in both music theory and American Sign Language.
Music theory was the first course I took. I was in a class of much younger students who were there to fulfill a humanities course. I don’t think many of the students really cared anything about the content of the course. I didn’t need the grade, I just wanted to learn the subject. So I studied, did the reading, did all of the work and became the class know-it-all. It was different watching all the other students in class who were there from another perspective. I didn’t need a humanity credit, I needed the knowledge. I felt sorry for those students that were going through the paces just to get the credit. They were missing so much.
American Sign Language was different. I ended up taking 20 credits worth of courses and it was difficult (I’m not great with languages). The students in these classes needed these courses to fulfill their majors and were all invested in the courses. We all worked hard. We all liked what we were learning.
Sitting in all those classes I thought about our education system and how we teach kids. I incorporated what I had learned, not necessarily the content (though I did teach ASL to my students) but what it was that made the students participate and become involved in what was being taught. Be active, make the content purposeful, create a desire not to get the grade but to become the learner and gain the knowledge for oneself. I would like to think that I made an impact on the students I taught and through me, when they did get to college worked, learned and enjoyed all that was offered to them.
