Tutoring Reflection

Tutoring at West high school this past semester I met Alejandro*. In one of our first sessions, I was working with him on a physics worksheet. Half out of conscious pedagogical commitment and half out of necessity (I have never taken physics), I probed Alejandro with questions, getting him to teach himself. I have become rather good at this technique, and the effect is inspiring. When we reached the final problem (designed to test comprehension of the concept, not ability to follow a formula), Alejandro started relaying his thinking out loud. He was using the deductive method that I previously modeled through my questions. He realized as much as I did that he worked out the answer himself. His clear enthusiasm as he finished the problem left me smiling, but I certainly was not expecting the visible excitement that spread through his face. Before he left, we agreed that physics was pretty cool, a …show more content…
My senior year of high school I ran for and became the Student Representative on the MMSD Board of Education. On the Board I learned about a wide variety of education policy as well as the practical reality of school governance and administration. I spent that year mobilizing students to influence Board policy, ultimately introducing budget amendments to shift millions of dollars to focus on supporting students. I felt disillusioned because I saw schools mirror rather than combat the injustice I was determined to fight. As I delved further into education policy and experienced teaching for myself, I began to see schools not just as places where injustice is reproduced, but where it can be resisted. I realize now more than ever that teaching and learning do not happen in a vacuum. The students I want to teach live on a daily basis in the institutions and histories they will grapple with in the curriculum. This must always be at the forefront of my mind, if I am to be a teacher who actively fights