CH 7. Fulfilling the Promise

I absolutely L-O-V-E-D loved (can you tell I've been reading Clementine to my daughter?) reading this last chapter. I felt like it was worded just for me. It was the final pep talk, encouragement boost and last big HURRAH I needed to feel confident enough to get out there, and BECOME a differentiating teacher!

One part that I loved about this last chapter (although there are so many things I loved), was that she addressed one of the biggest questions that probably has run through all of our heads since we first began learning about differentiation; "Why is it so hard?" I love the understanding that comes through when she says, "It's hard because people at home need so much of us too, and there seems never to be enough of us to go around, even for those people who are at ground zero in our lives, let alone those who inhabit the perimeters of our lives" (p.90). THAT describes perfectly a fear I have had. I WANT so badly to be a differentiating teacher, but I don't want to sacrafice the well-being of my own family and child. I want to nuture, teach and help all of my students, especially those that are suffering from deep scars, but not at the expense of creating deep scars in my own child. It almost seems dismal as she describes why it is so hard, (although you appreciate that she understands and "gets" what her readers are feeling).

However, she doesn't leave you feeling hopeless and unable. She gives you the following beautiful guarantees that make me want to try! She says, "The more promising for students our decision is, the more complex it will be to live out. The more full professional we want to become, the greater the risks we take. The more artful we want our work to be, the clumsier we will look along the way...BUT there is one more guarantee. The more willing we are to take the risks, the better the lives of our students are likely to become, and the greater the fulfillment we are likely to feel at the end of the day"(p.91).

She says that, "if we allow ourselves to fall in love with what we do, we will be reborn countless times, almost always in a form stronger and more fully human than the one that preceded it. Thus it may be that to teach more responsively, more effectively, we ultimately need to accept two challenges:
1) We need to cultivate passion for what we do
2) We need to remove our protective armor and allow our students to shape us, reflecting on and learning from what we see (p. 92)

If we sincerely and truly love the calling of a teacher and immerse ourselves in it, and give of ourselves, becoming vulnerable, then we will become differentiating teachers. Not overnight. Not in a week. But it will be a progressive development that will refine us as we emerge from each year spent with a group of new students. What a wonderful opportunity!! The picture she paints makes me sad for those teachers who teach their whole lives, and never get it. Never have this wonderous change and refining occur.

Another part of this chapter I really connected with was the metaphor examples. I throroughly enjoyed these. The metaphor of gravy reminded me of my grandmother. Ever since I can remember, at Christmastime, she would bake all kinds of Christmas cookies, treats and candies. She would spend hours upon hours in the kitchen. Days upon days leading up to Christmas. I remember one year she even had us help her use different colored chocolate to paint the decoration on top of the chocolate candies she had made (instead of just letting them be plain old chocolate colored). I am sure it was laborous for her to stand on her feet all those hours, bent over the kitchen stove, cleaning up messes. But, rather than seeing it as a chore or tradition she had to do, she began to enjoy it and love it. Although I have tried to make Grandma's Christmas treats, I can't quite do them the way she did them and get them to turn out the way hers did. I have kept on the tradition of Christmas baking and treat making, but I have learned to adapt the recipes she has given me, adding some of my own, and taking out others that didn't quite fit, so that I have the perfect Christmas goodie fit for myself and my family.

These metaphors helped me to realize that become a differentiating teacher is exactly the same idea. I have had awesome examples of differentiating teachers throughout this program and have come out of their classes with a great respect and admiration for them. At times, I have wished that I could teach like them. HOWEVER, I have come to see that I can't teach like them. I can't differentiate like them. I can only differentiate like me - what fits me. AND because I haven't yet taught and had experience differentiating, it is going to be a work in progress - something that develops. Differentiation for each person is as different as comparing their fingerprints. Each persons' is unique to them.

The last part of this chapter I was moved by(and I am not over-exaggerating - I was really getting emotional reading this last chapter and felt like she was right there, cheering me on and encouraging me forward), and it was the BIG HURRAH for me so I am going to quote it here to end my post:

"We learned to ride a bike not by studying about it until we were confident, but by getting on, falling off, and climbing on again...We learn by beginning and by keeping on. Our young, our schools, our country, and our world are better for each teacher who musters up all the courage he or she can find and says to the fox, "Can you show me how to tame you?"