What way can you have an influence on your school and you students besides teaching?
When I was in school, my classroom teachers were just the people who taught my classes. It was my coaches and advisors who really stood out to me and made my experience worthwhile. This question really makes me think about how I can be a real mentor to my students and an asset to my school.
I’ve always been hyper-involved with extra-curricular activities. In high school it was girl scouts, debate, forensics, mock trial, teen court, band (in all its forms: pep, jazz, marching…), diversity club and others. Each of these organizations and teams made a real impact on my attitude toward school and teachers.
I plan to coach and advise teams and organizations. I can’t say for sure which ones because I’m passionate about many things, and I feel like I need to go where I am most needed. As a coach I can have an impact on my students like many other adults cannot have. I will let my students know that there are options out there for people who don’t want to or can’t play sports (although sports are absolutely a great experience and worthwhile for any student who chooses to participate in them) or feel like they aren’t particularly good at any competitive activity.
Teams and clubs are about working and growing together—not about winning. I hope to give my students a sense of belonging within their group. This is something important that’s missing from a lot of students’ lives. If they feel like other people are invested in their well-being, they will also become self-reflective and think about me and their teammates next time they get into a sticky situation. If joining debate or diversity club can get students active, collaborating, and engaged, I want to enable and encourage them to do so.
Name one social issue of concern and project how schools, schooling, or you as a teacher might be able to help address this issue. What good will it do, what part can you play?
This question stuck out to me immediately as something I feel passionate about and have an answer for. I avoided it at first because I felt like I couldn’t even begin to pick out just one social issue I’m concerned about in schools. The truth is that I’m concerned about all social issues in schools.
Social issue of concern? Racism, classism, ablism, agism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, queerphobia, religious intolerance, environmental irresponsibility, the list goes on indefinitely. Half of the words I just typed aren’t even validated by Microsoft. What I’m most concerned with about schools is that people aren’t being taught to think and question assumptions.
It seems to me that many schools allow and even encourage students and faculty to stay comfortably in their own worldviews without wondering why they think the way they do. Often if you ask a high school why they think it’s wrong to be gay, they’ll say something like “it’s gross” or “it’s just not how I was raised.” Also, it’s getting so that students (even in college, which I think is horrific) think that sexism and racism don’t exist and that affirmative action is “racist” against white men.
When this sort of thinking is allowed to go unchecked, nothing will ever change. I do not intend to let this sort of thing go unnoticed in my classroom. When I hear students call things gay, retarded, ghetto, or lame, we are going to have a talk about how and why that usage is destructive and what they can do to counter the injustice that’s currently going on in their schools. I will not change everyone’s mind, and many students will not understand or care about what I’m saying. However, I am certain that an open discussion that provokes students to think about their language, actions, and assumptions will get at least a few students to wake up to the reality of a diverse world.
Which habits of thinking, mind, intellect, and character do you possess that make you an example or role model for today’s youth?
I’m a self-proclaimed relativist. Not absolutely (which is appropriate, I think), but there are not many things that I think are true per se. Because of this way of thinking, I am not going to be quick to tell students that they’re wrong. As long as a student can sufficiently justify a statement, I believe it is not a teacher’s place to say that their thinking is wrong or inadequate.
That’s not to say there can’t be right and wrong answers on a test. However, often teachers are looking for specific answers during class discussion or on informal assignments. That’s very discouraging for students who have a different way of looking at things. I have a major fear of offering my opinion/answer in class and having the teacher brush me off in favor of the student who knew exactly what the teacher was looking for. I would be must more likely to participate in class if a teacher would just say, “I never looked at it that way before, what makes you say that?” instead of, “Well, not quite. Anyone else?”
Since I look at things from a variety of perspectives, I will challenge my students to do the same. If they say something definite and absolute, I’ll question why things have to be that way instead of another. I think this encourages critical thinking and an expanded perspective. Without dismissing a student’s opinion or idea, I will ask them how they can incorporate other ideas into their worldview as well. Not only will this be important in understanding literature and the writing process, but it will also help students get along with folks outside of the classroom because it will teach acceptance of varying ideas.
Why do you want to be a teacher or speech pathologist?
When I was in seventh grade I started dating a girl from a different school. I hadn’t had to deal with homophobia yet, so I was really unprepared for what would happen when folks at my junior high found out. They started calling me all kinds of words that I didn’t know yet, and several of my friends started acting really strange toward me. I honestly had no idea what was going on, so I went to one of my teachers. She was one of those teachers who put so much energy and passion into their classroom that I couldn’t help but feel safe and welcome. She always told us that if we needed her help in anything, she’d do whatever she could for us. Yet when I walked into her classroom and told her what was going on, all she said was “That’s not an appropriate topic for school.” The *topic* being my sexuality.
She failed me that day. It took me years to talk about my sexuality or confide in another teacher. That experience, along with many others like it, solidified my desire to become a teacher. I want to be for my students everything that my teachers weren’t for me. Students need a safe space, no matter what their situation. They need emotional support, especially because many of them are not getting it at home or from their “friends.”
Through my years of school prior to college, my teachers taught me English, math, and science. I learned to sew and sing and write an essay. I also learned not to ask hard questions, bring my personal life to my classrooms, or expect teachers to care about me individually. My teachers taught me that it’s better and safer to be like everyone else instead of realizing it’s not *my* fault that people can’t deal with me. I learned not to read ahead of the class or let anyone know that I aced a test.
When I came out of the closet in high school, I got a nasty note in my locker (among an unimaginable amount of harassment from my classmates). The note called me a *** (if this blog bleeps out that word, it’s supposed to say q u e e r) and threatened me. Against my instinct, I brought the note to my (awful) principal. He read the note and said, “Well, are you?” ***? “Yes, so?” What he said after that makes me sick every time I think about it. “Well, what do you expect then? If you’re like that, I can’t do anything for you.”
I want to teach because if people who think like me never get into a system that doesn’t want them, the system will never change.
Why do you think you will be a good teacher? Specifically, what talents and gifts do you have that others don’t?
I will be a good teacher because I am a good learner. Literature, composition, language, and communication are my passion, but I haven’t always been the typical “English Major.” I learn through activities and drawing and making a mess and taking walks and singing songs. While I am able to sit through lecture, read books straight through, and write a paper on pretty much anything I need to, I don’t learn best through this. I think most of my students learn the way I do. By teaching English through a myriad of methods, beyond “just” reading and writing for the genres, I can open doors for my students that may have been left shut by teachers who want to be traditional.
I also come to my classroom with the knowledge and experience of being an outcast in secondary school—of being part of an “alternative” crowd. My friends were the “screw-ups” and the kids that a lot of parents wouldn’t want their kids to hang out with. They were also students who needed a lot of help at school and in their personal lives. Since I’ve been there and been a part of that, I feel like I have a better chance at reaching these students than teachers who mean well but don’t always know how to handle the hardasses.
Name a serious challenge you may face as a teacher, and some strategies you would use to correct, amend, accommodate, mitigate, or fix this challenge.
I chose this question because my challenges and shortcomings seem to be on my mind a lot as I struggle with how I want to shape my future. The challenge that I’m going to talk about is certainly not unique to me, but it’s one that I hear very little about from other teachers.
Since teachers are held under such elevated scrutiny, any deviation from accepted “normal behavior or lifestyles” presents a major challenge. Teachers don’t always get to have the private lives they used to have, and things that would be acceptable for other community members is often a major taboo for teachers. In my specific instance, I’m talking about my gender identity and expression.
I’m a *** person and always have been. I’m comfortable with my identity and have been out to not only my friends and family, but also to the general public since I was in high school. Not everyone has been understanding and supportive, and most people can’t even comprehend what I’m talking about, but regardless of any of that, I’ve been open about who I am. I’m a happier and more accessible person when I get to be myself.
Since I’m female-bodied, but not female-identified, I face a very specific challenge. Most people “get” homosexuals. They understand “gay” because it’s just like “straight” except opposite. But since I’m not gay or straight, boy or girl, my identity requires breaking down some of the binaries that a lot of people are not comfortable leaving. My gender presentation varies. Sometimes I like to wear dresses and paint my toenails, but often I wear men’s clothes and bind so that I’m presenting in a more masculine way. Despite my outward appearance, I still prefer to be called Jacob and be referred to with male or gender-neutral pronouns.
Cross-dressing is fairly acceptable for “women” to do, but using male language for a female is a hard thing to explain without coming out fully. And coming out as a new teacher just isn’t something I feel like I’ll be able to do. It’ll be much harder for me to find a job if I’m openly gender-variant, and if I do manage to find a job, my gender and sexuality will probably be under more scrutiny than my teaching.
So I won’t be able to be out in the workplace. I’ll probably be able to have my coworkers call me “Jay” without a lot of questions, but I’ll always be “she” and “Miss Vanevenhoven.” While this may not seem like a big deal, to me it is. But I’ll closet myself because that’s what I feel I need to do in order to be a teacher who can focus on teaching instead of defending my identity. Hopefully I can work within the education system to make it a more inclusive and open place for *** teachers and students. After all, that’s why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place.