I teach in a very high poverty inner city school. I LOVE it! There is no other school that I would rather work at. Because of how our funding is set up, I only have 20 students (soon to be 19). This is different than almost any other public school setting where numbers easily run 29-33 in elementary classrooms. I essentially have the size of class that a private school teacher would have. This provides me with many luxuries in how I choose to teach my students.
During Social Studies time, we are doing a research project on the Native Americans, and I call a group of five boys up to work with me. I plop down on the floor to be in the middle of them to start our mini-lesson. During this time, I get up 4 or 5 times to go walk around and check on the progress of the other students. I teach small groups like this at least three times a day. It hit me as I was getting up the last time to check on the class, I could not have done this two years ago. I have never been able to sit on the floor and work with a group of students. Now, it is something that I do multiple times a day. I will continue to do it, simply because I CAN. My body is not holding me back anymore. I am NOT a prisoner of it. I can use it to do the things that I desire. How liberating!!!
Makes me think of the quote by Frederick Douglass, "I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted." I am no longer a slave of my body!
3 comments:
This is a wonderful post! Good for you!! Its amazing how almost strange it is to be "normal". Here's to many more WOW's for you!
Have a super week!
*huggles*
=0)
Cool! Thanks for the inspiration!
I feel the same way. When I went to my son's school for a conference, they pointed my up TWO flights of stairs. I went right up, no thought. At the top I realized I could not have done it a year ago. What a great change it is not to be held captive by our weight :)
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