I Heart My Students

I truly Heart my students. I know I talk a lot about the problems of teaching, of education, and of my school; however, at the end of the day, I keep going back to teach. I love what I do. It makes me happy to have a positive impact on the lives of so many young people. I see so much potential when I look into their eyes. As Lauryn Hill once said, "[They] inspire me to be a higher me." Everyday I try to be a better teacher so that they can become better people/students.

The above picture was drawn by one of my former students. She's a brilliant student and an amazing artist. She's only a sophomore and she plans to attend UNC Chapel Hill. The picture is actually a sign and it hangs on the wall outside of my room, above my door. The other two pictures embody how I feel about my job. If you look close enough, you can see that the different squares (some rectangles) surrounding the Malcolm X poster are actually Me Squared. The students were supposed to put a picture of themselves in the middle and put words, images, and symbols that are significant to them around the outside of their picture. I placed their squares around Malcolm X's poster which features his famous quote: "We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary." I believe that by any means necessary, I will educate my students to believe in themselves, their futures, and their worth. And they are the means, my weapons if you will, which I will use to fight a society which systematically tries to denigrate African Americans in our country.

Again, I Heart My Students:0)