On the Reservation

By J. Shyu

Jessica Shyu, now in her second year with Teach For America, is a special education teacher at an elementary and middle school on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Once a journalism student from the Washington, D.C., area , she has since traded the Beltway for the sprawling mesas of the Southwest. In this blog, Jessica will chronicle the good, the bad, and the occasionally amusing of being a young teacher at an underresourced school in a rural community.

« Refocus | Main | As good as a linebacker »

Paint under my nails

I have 10 kiddos running around my classroom, glue and papers on the floor, and I have a sneaking suspicion that there's blue paint slowly drying on my carpet. I still have a head cold and I stopped being paid an hour and a half ago. Yet, eight little paper scarecrows on my desk tell me this is all worth it.

Posted by Jessica Shyu on September 28, 2006 6:44 PM | Permalink

Comments

That is a great short description of a classroom where both chaos and creativity are breaking out. The forces of testing and conformity are in the ascendancy these days, but I have found that when the students have their passions engaged then they are open to more learning (and, in fact, learn more).

Keep up the great work!

Posted by: Phil Nash | September 29, 2006 1:03 PM

Jessica,
I enjoy "checking in" on you. You are learning as your students are...isn't that great?! Keep your mind and your heart open. You are truly "teaching the future".

Posted by: Diane | October 26, 2006 11:26 AM