Holyoke

So the primary purpose of creating this blog is to stay in touch and keep people updated on my life in Argentina. For those of you don’t know, I’ll be in Buenos Aires from March to November, teaching English on a Fulbright grant. I’m hopeful that this blog will serve as the best way for me to stay in touch with all the people I’m close to while I’m away. I’m also hoping to be able to use this site as a way to reflect on my experiences, and to express and develop some of the ideas that brew in my head.

As most of you know, I’ve been working as a permanent substitute teacher at a K-12 alternative behavioral school in Holyoke, MA. The school has a lot of different things going on at once – there are several very different programs operating under the same roof – but the basic idea of the school is that it’s a public school, run by the Holyoke Public School district, and it absorbs students who are relocated from the district's “mainstream” schools for behavioral reasons. "Behavioral reasons" is without question a very broad, and in some cases unfair, way to put it, but that's the basic premise. In any case, as an everyday sub, I show up each morning with no concept of whether I’ll be in a K-2 latency classroom or a self-contained, behavioral high school room. So I wear a lot of different hats at work - which is one of the greatest things about the job.

While this blog is mostly meant for Argentina, it’s also very much about Holyoke. Some of you know that I consider having worked at this school for the past six months to be one of the most inspiring, enjoyable, and educational experiences of my life. I can’t think of any other experience, including my time at Wheaton and my semester in Spain, that has been as challenging or rewarding as working in Holyoke has been.

One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed my job so much is that, because I’m a sub, I get to work with different staff – teachers, paraprofessionals, adjustment counselors, interventionists, and even administrators - every single day. Every day I’m exposed to a different approach to teaching, tutoring, mentoring, and, yes, disciplining students. One of the most useful educational mantras that I’ve learned from my coworkers is that “every student is different” – I’ve heard that at least 50 times since September. But every teacher is different, too – and I’ve gotten to cherry-pick the strategies that I find to be the most useful and successful. Some of the advice I’ve gotten from my coworkers – I’m thinking of one person, in particular – has been invaluable, and I will take it with me for the rest of my life. The most important thing I’ve learned? That the very best thing you can do to help a student succeed is simply show him or her that you care. Discipline is important, but if you don’t care about your students and their success, you can’t teach them effectively.

Now, enough about the teachers. As great as they are, they can’t compare to the incredible students I’ve gotten to work with in Holyoke. These might be the brightest and most interesting, curious, and funny kids I ever get to work with. Even after the most stressful, frustrating or disheartening day at work – and there have been plenty of those - I’ve never really given up on the realization of how important it is for these kids to have teachers who really care about them. (As I mentioned, I've been incredibly lucky to work with teachers who are the epitome of patience, dedication, compassion, and a passion for teaching.) A few of you know that as excited as I am about Argentina, there was a significant amount of time in November and December when I seriously considered dropping the Fulbright to stay in Holyoke and teach at this school. That’s how inspiring this job has been for me. Both the teachers and the students have taught me so much that it will be really difficult to pick up and leave halfway through the year. The connections I've made with the students have been the most rewarding and inspiring aspect of the job. They've shown me that, in one way or another, teaching will be a part of my life for a long time to come.

In some ways, I look at the Fulbright as an investment in my own future as an educator; this is definitely something I plan to bring back and share with people in the U.S., including students in Holyoke, Springfield, and elsewhere. One of my coworkers and friends from work is totally signed on to the idea of setting up Skype video conversations and a pen-pal correspondence between my students in Argentina and hers in Holyoke – which I think is the coolest idea ever.

In any case, I hope this serves as an introduction of sorts to what I hope to use this blog for. I promise I’ll try to be more concise – but no guarantees there. Much more to come.