#teaching fellows

By Anthony F. For a first-year teacher, the on-the-job learning curve is so close to vertical that to get to the top, you don’t walk; you climb. Every day in your classroom is an opportunity to learn something new. Every hour, you discover something about your students, and you guide them to make discoveries on their own. You experiment with ideas. And, along the way, you discover something about yourself too. The work of learning is both remolding the material you have, but also, adding bits of new stuff too. In this way, not only do your students become new, so does you, the teacher. The fingerprints of my first year of self-remolding remain over the work I do today, ten years later. To be sure, I’ve refined some practices: my recordkeeping has evolved, and my instructional techniques have improved. However, the initial forms I crafted: the core skills I use to teach, those requiring understanding lessons from both sides of the desk, were developed while working with my first class of students. It was during that initial summer, in which I trained with a mentor and collaborated with peers, I gained not only an understanding of how to design a lesson, but how to tailor them to the young minds before me. It was during those weeks that I realized how a lesson’s objectives are less important than the student’s ability to reach those objectives. In simpler terms, it mattered less what I said and more what my students heard. Only by making space for reflection in the classroom and listening closely to their responses, did it become possible to skillfully direct the students to the lesson’s objective. Much like a Sherpa guides his or her followers to a mountain’s summit, I wasn’t alone in summiting this steep learning curve. I stayed close to my students, and we climbed together. In learning to listen, I developed a skill to improve my teaching in a way meeting my students where they are, rather than where I want them to be. The adage, “To go fast, go alone; to go far, go together,” applies to teaching. Sure you can push straight through a lesson and reach the end alone, but if you leave your students behind you, have you truly succeeded?

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[when my dgroup delivered the greatest Christmas present- click here]

So many prayers have been answered these past few months and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me next. Too excited to be a South Carolina Teaching Fellow at my #1 school!

I'm so happy. I am officially a Teaching Fellow in South Carolina. Out of 900 applicants statewide, I am one of the 200 that got it. I'm so happy to have this opportunity and continue to live out God's perfect plan for my life. I am truly blessed.

Due... March 31, interfolio (MLA JIL)

New York City Teaching Fellows is a teacher education program that specifically focuses on preparing teachers to work in low income neighborhoods in New York City. Committed to a better future for New York City, the Teaching Fellows program offers intensive classroom practice, expert coaching, and personalized training. Apply today! New