... And that's why I Teach For America

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy with my trip to Wake Forest to recruit and interview for Teach For America. I left B'more last Tuesday, worked non-stop ALL day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then relaxed a bit around campus before returning to the real world. In my three-day TFA recruitment stint, I interviewed over 20 seniors, spoke to a handful of administrators, gave four full presentations to classes, and told the story of my teaching experience at luncheons, info sessions, and a career fair. Certainly kept me busy, that's for sure. I didn't think anything could wear a person out more than a day of teaching, but I'm pretty sure this took the cake.

I was so impressed with the reaction I got from all of my presentations, not to mention the enthusiams and sincerity of the people I met with. Thankfully, TFA training got me prepare to be as inspirational as posssible, so hopefully that came across and we've got some new corps members coming our way.

Right before I left school before my trip, one of my students, Kevin, passed me a letter that he asked me to read to "all of the new teachers," hoping to instill in them the spirit of so many of my students. Kevin has been acting a little strange lately and his grades have dropped significantly over the past few months, so I was almost brought to tears when I read his letter (as were many of the TFA prospects who I shared this with). I called him over the weekend to thank him for sending it with me, and he came into school yesterday with a totally new perspective. I hope you are impressed as I was.

Education is my light in this dark world.
Learning is like a war today. There are more and more soldiers leaving the battlefield; the students who drop out of school and teachers who give up on their students.
Education was denied to many people in the past. Today, many young children and especially teenagers take school for granted. There are teachers who also take their jobs for granted by slacking off and treating their students disrespectfully.
There are many urban areas just like Baltimore that are short on teachers. The teachers we have work hard and are still not as appreciated as they should be. These teachers could use a helping hand to lighten their tremendous burden. The students could also use teachers better than substitutes. The students have been failed by teachers, other students, parents, and most of all the city. These students, as well as the teachers, need your help to pick up the city's slack. So I, Kevin Diggs, am asking you to devote yourself to helping these students and teachers of our flawed system. I, in return, will take all the knowledge given to me and use it to the fullest extent.
Please consider my words.
Sincerely,
Kevin Marquell Diggs

This just goes to show that, sometimes deep down, you'll find something really great in every one of our students. Along those lines, I'd like to direct you to partner-in-crime Ms. McCant's blog who couldn't have made this point any better :-)