Teaching Hope Part III

This was a great section to read after reading the terribly sad stories in the previous section. When reading this section I felt as though I had hope that I too could have the impact on my students that these teachers wrote about in these stories. The positive impact these teachers described was uncanny and something that no one else has any idea about except a teacher. That's a feeling I want. The story about the Indian Reservation talked to me the most. The teacher taught these students with fun and innovative lessons, however the students did not respect her or like the class because they had always been put down by other people, so how was this teacher any different they thought. Well, when this teacher then gave them readings about how groups discriminated against fought through and overcame this discrimination, the students changed their minds about this teacher. They gave her respect because of who she was not because she had great lessons. That is one thing I would really like to focus on: is earning my students respect.