Now in My Twenties

This text was originally written in May 2016 for Teach For America purposes. Now that my TFA commitment is coming to a close, I have decided to publish my Articulation of Leadership and share with my fellow teachers in hopes that it might express the importance of our work and inspire teachers to continue teaching. ... The academic school year 2015 through 2016 was a year of many changes. I started my new career as an educator; before I had been an editor. This was a big jump for me. I went from reading and editing books every day to teaching children how to read. The decision to change careers was not an easy one, but I knew without a shadow of doubt that I wanted to teach. More specifically, I wanted to teach literacy. Truth is: I love reading and writing. I love it so much that I want to share it with the rest of the world. And there is no better place to begin than in the classroom. My students sharing and celebrating a book we published   titled The Day the Students Too...

So there I was. All dressed up and in my car, following the voice of my GPS, making turn after turn. I had made a wrong turn sometime earlier, making my GPS go into overdrive trying to steer me back the right way. She insisted I go back to the main road (I programmed my GPS to have a female voice; no way would my pride be able to take another man’s voice telling me what to do.) Turn right, turn left, left again, she said. But, of course, to no avail. Finally, I accepted the undeniable truth; I would not get to my destination tonight. My destination was a restaurant in a very business-y section of downtown Fort Worth. A local group was meeting there tonight for after-hours drinks and networking. I hadn't been to these meetings in almost a year. Not quite sure how I felt about going back. But the voices of all the no-nonsense career experts kept talking in my head, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” As usual, I listened and did as I was told. But I have to admit, th...