Currins 545

As a young student I felt like I was asked to think about imagery a lot more in terms of my literary journey. Perhaps that was because I was having to read more things with images than not. We are now in a world where seemingly everything we read has at least a tethered idea to something visual, the covers of a book (which are wildly important and very underrated), mass product paperback editions, film or television adaptations, that may or may not be great adaptations but can be helpful regardless, those film posters, which essentially are art work for the story. That is where I started. I think for a long time I fought against the reality of everything was being made into a visual medium, and maybe that is where I went wrong. English educator is the path I am on, so instead of fighting a big medium that may help my students engage, why not lean into it. My favorite author is James Baldwin, a genius, and unfortunately seeming like a person who does not get read as much as he should, i...

Appropriating others works and words in the classroom is vital. It allows to keep ideas fresh and for the curriculum to feel new and not complacent. At the front of these classrooms are white instructors, about 90 percent of my teachers up to this point have been so far. There is always a desire to engage their students, to feel relatable in some kind of way. But there has always been a hesitancy to academically use diverse voices in order to keep their students engaged and inspired. There is a true disconnect with white peoples acceptance of using nonwhite cultures as a way to seem "cool" or trendy, but their abject refusal to use those cultures and voices inside the classroom academically. The inability or refusal to having difficult conversation because it is "not their place to say" unfortunately that excuse isn't good enough anymore. Teachers are doing their students a disservice by not including them or their voices to better represent the full experience,...

 Welcome ya'll!  I am not entirely sure who I am as an educator just yet! I haven't had the chance to hone my skills or experience life inside of a classroom facing the class. But I think I can pretty well imagine the type of educator I want to be. At this point in my life I have gone through hundreds of teachers, or at least pretty close. Some of them great, some of them less than great, and some that I will simply remember for the rest of my life, based solely on how they commanded the room. Like a lot of people my age I think we were raised in world most profoundly by the things we have seen in pop culture, movies and tv shows have shaped my perception of what would be an ideal teacher, and that has always been Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society. A man who simply loved to teach and loved his students, who energized, engaged, supported, and inspired them to be the best versions of themselves. That is what I wish to accomplish in my long career as an educator and will do eve...