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- (Class) Be adaptable! – This was a main takeaway of the class for me, especially because there were many times where things did not go according to plan or timelines needed to be adjusted. We couldn’t just stop the class altogether, but rather we had to figure out how to work around it and keep going, and I think that exemplifies how we need to act in the classroom. Things will definitely not always go to plan when teaching, so we need to learn to have a malleable mind that doesn’t get fixed up on tiny mistakes that are not world-ending in the long run.
- (Class) You cannot function by yourself. – Throughout this class, group work with other people was so important, but it was not always the same people, and it was not always people you normally would have worked with. However, no matter who we worked with, it was always intended to lighten the burden of a project, and I think that can be applied into teaching as well. In a teaching field, you will always have to work with coworkers, admin, and families towards achieving what you need to achieve. I believe that having an open mind and being willing to work with everyone can greatly extend the want to teach for many years, as it will (usually) take some of the work off of your back.
- (Class) Use all available resources. – In all of our projects, we were encouraged to use everything we had at our disposal: AI, other sources, research reports, each other, and professors. By building a diverse breadth of knowledge that we have access to, when we get tossed out into the real world, we are able to keep ourselves afloat using the sources we were introduced to in class. Having multiple places to draw from builds a complex, nuanced, toolkit that we can take into our teaching careers in order to best address the multiple issues that will absolutely arise as we teach.
- (Class) Other voices in education are vitally important. – Another major part of this class was hearing a variety of voices from people who are much more tenured in this field than I am. Hearing what they have to say and applying their advice before going into the field is so important because it creates a toolkit you can draw from as opposed to getting thrown into a classroom with no prior expectations. It isn’t always the worst thing to take pieces of other people’s philosophy to create your own; you can always adapt it as you go along.
- (Class) Take care of mental health first, especially in such a taxing field. – Something we did every class was center, and I think that emphasized the importance of self-care in a career that has a primary focus of serving everyone but yourself. Knowing strategies to take care of yourself and ensure a sound mind is vital to maintaining the will and desire to teach and also amplifies your ability to give back.
- (VP) The kids who are the hardest to love need it the most. – Working in a school that had many kids that were “difficult” or came from families that weren’t ideal environments for children to grow up in, it opened my eyes to who I needed to be as a teacher. In the beginning, it frustrated me greatly, but as I learned WHY they act the way they do and how much better they would act once they know they had someone supporting them changed my perspective. Many times, if I could be the safe space they were lacking at home, they were so much more willing to listen to me and be in a more sound state of mind, and that taught me not to judge a student by their actions, because it is often out of necessity, not want.
- (VP) Patience is a virtue! – Branching off of number 6, kids are not always how they seem. Throughout the semester, I was able to see massive leaps in how they would act around me, showing that their initial impressions that they show you is often not who they actually want to be, but rather a defense mechanism. If you are willing to put the work in to care for them as people, no matter how they act, it is absolutely going to pay off, but only if you stick out the rough beginnings at first. I know this will be true in my own classroom someday, because every day is not going to be the easiest, and some days you will need to remember the light at the end of the tunnel: your “why” if you will.
- (VP) The skills you need cannot always be taught. – Going into the Village Project, I was so worried about not having the skill set I needed to be successful when placed in a place of leadership. However, I quickly learned that the skills needed to succeed in a classroom were not so much taught as they were learned. I often worry about not being able to be perfect right away in teaching, however, my experience in the Village Project illuminated to me that I don’t have to be perfect right away because skill comes with tenure, not a textbook.
- (VP) Keep going. – It is absolutely no secret that teaching is a career that has both a high turnover rate and is a career that burns people out incredibly quickly. Through the Village Project, in the beginning especially, I questioned on a very deep level whether teaching was the right career for me because I would come home every day and be absolutely exhausted and frustrated on multiple levels. However, it did get easier after I got over the hump of acclimating to a new environment. When something doesn’t go perfectly immediately, I am very much the type to give up, but I took away from Doty that it is not an easy career, but if you stick it out, you will be so incredibly fulfilled.
- (VP) Connect on a deeper level than academic. – While you are there to teach students, you are also there to see the students as people. In the Village Project, there was visible light that would come to students’ faces when they would realize that I could speak a little Spanish, or that I understood their favorite references or hobbies. Forming deep connections with students that stretch beyond the classroom makes it easier for both parties to learn. While it may take more energy or time than halting your commitment at the academic level, it is worth it to connect deeply, as that is how you become a teacher that makes an impact, which is exactly who I want to be.
