Linking Student Literacy

Abstract

I delight in the resultant power of people coming together. When people connect for the purpose of learning, there exists a luxurious, alchemic potential for greatness. One of my greatest fascinations as a teacher is to walk into the classroom on the first day to face a myriad of personalities, shapes, and sizes all assembled together for the purpose of change and growth. It is that initial moment of potential, in the spirit of dynamic possibility, that I derive my challenge: how am I going to bring these 35 unfamiliar, possibly reticent, individuals into one, cohesive, supportive, collaborative group? One of the most valuable things I have learned in my seventeen years of teaching is that a sense of belonging, that sense of valued participation, is a critical ingredient for creating connections from disparity.