Q & A

What are some of the major lessons you learned during the corps?

Building personal relationships within your school’s community (especially with families) is the most important thing you can do to be an effective teacher. Building good relationships helped make me more effective with the students who needed help and helped build a foundation of trust.

What would you consider your biggest success as a teacher? What achievement are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of teaching my students how to advocate for themselves and recognize/call out systems of oppression. We had a classroom built on mutual trust and openness, so we often discussed events in the local community and the national news. My students had the space to form their own opinions and take a more active stance on a wide variety of topics.

Describe your first day of teaching. What emotions were you feeling? What struggles did you have to overcome?

Transitioning into teaching elementary school was difficult because I originally depended heavily on the examples set by my college professors as my teaching role models. (Hint: lecturing to a bunch of 10-year-olds is not a great way to be an effective teacher.) Teach For America helped me unlearn some of these bad tendencies and gave me many examples of effective teaching to help me continuously improve during my first year.

How do you use the skills and beliefs you developed in the corps in your current role?

Former teachers are experts at presenting complex information in a way that a wide range of people can understand. We are also excellent listeners and easily become trusted advisors to clients due to our ability to lead with compassion and empathy.