by Garrett Hedman

Throughout all of institute, Teach for America has taught me a lot about being a teacher: management policies, incentive systems, lesson planning, and diversity awareness. Many of these tools TFA provides help me be an outstanding teacher because when I mess up, which this past week believe me, I did, I had a vision of what my class should look like and the appropriate tools of how to get there. However, even with all this knowledge TFA has bestowed on me, there is one gift that supersedes everything else: a community.

The first few days of school was no walk in the park. Ninety minutes of instruction time is not an easy allotment to keep people busy, working, and learning the whole time. Also, I’ve never worked a full day job before. The hour class I taught over the summer was wonderful, but in reality, one hour is MUCH different then a days worth of teaching. These two factors of time, the length of a class and the length of the day, had me a little uneasy the first few days. Now, although many students and myself had an enjoyable time and learned a lot, the process didn’t feel natural.

The discomfort in the situation was alleviated by my peers. That is, after a long day, twenty of us teachers gathered in a small house to talk about the stories, to talk about the troubles, and to talk about the successes of the day. Just walking into a house and seeing so many familiar faces made me feel human. As a teacher I have to be strict and constantly enforcing policy, but around friends, I could be myself.

I truly can’t imagine coming into my class, by myself, leaving, by myself, and going home in a state I hardly know. Teach for America has brought me into a challenging profession, but the support the people give me has truly helped make this challenging profession completely feasible.