Posts (page 2)

" Now I have reached the age

  After leaving Atlanta and crossing the northwest corner of Alabama filled with bingo halls and the "Booby Trap", I came to a sign that read "Welcome to Mississippi.....It's Like Coming Home". It has been five years since my time in Oxford and it feels like I have never left. There are the same folks working at AJax who welcomed me at my usual stool and the same beautiful sites and feelings that just seem to have it right in this town. All the young frat boys with strapped sunglasses riding in their pickups adorned with Browning "Buck" stickers hoping of one day becoming Trent Lott and the girls doing their power-walks around the square causing a few swerves and  providing more than a few clients for the local chiropractor experiencing neck strain. This is the place that I have spoken about with such a nostalgic tone and I am glad to be back home.

    I am finding it difficult to adjust to central and Mississippi time. I keep wanting to rush from place to place and I have to realize that I am still recovering from Atlanta. There is more time in the day here, partly due to the fact that one can travel from point A to point B anywhere in Oxford in about five minutes, and also due to the lack of hurry and sponge-like way the townies and tourists in Oxford seem to soak up the day. I also have the sneaking suspicion that this is a calm before the storm.

   Anxiety is a small word for what I feel that I am getting into. Oxford is the exception to the Mississippi experience. The vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow have lingered on and are extremely present in the towns in which we will be teaching. I am curious how I will be received in my school. I have not met a second year who taught in my school district last year and will be returning to it this year. That is a fairly visible flare telling me that something may be extremely challenging about the environment I am getting ready to teach in. I am trying to heed advice and study up on teaching techniques, but I know that no amount of reading and preparation is adequate for the experience I am about to receive. This is something we just have to dive in head first and hope that we are able to swim or at least tread water sufficient enough not to drown.

   The teacher corps strikes me as taking a very honest approach to the task that we are embarking on. No video or blog is whitewashed and the key word that comes to mind when reviewing the work of those who have gone before is "challenge". I have always believed in hands-on training. You can read about swinging a golf club and the science of it and the mechanics, but until the club is in your hand and you are eyeballing a target you are not experiencing golf. The same is true for teaching. I have read some good books and blogs and spoken with teacher friends,but I know that until I am in that classroom I have no clue about what teaching really is. I am glad that I am in Holly Springs. I know this will be probably the most challenging thing I have attempted to date. My goals in the beginning are to finish this program, connect with my students, take a magnifying glass to our educational system, teach and learn as much as I can, and try and enjoy this great experience and these great people that comprise the Mississippi Teacher Corps.