Reflections
When I began the Teacher Corps program, I was twenty-one and had just graduated from Notre Dame, which is to say, I knew nothing of life outside the college setting. I admit that I quickly developed a distaste for my training at the graduate level in the field of education - I was expecting that earning a Master's degree would entail at least a certain amount of academic rather than so-called 'practical' work - but as I had never taught or held a 'real' full-time job before, I took in what I could from my student and team teaching sessions and in good faith waited to see what teaching was really like. I do not now entirely discount the experience, but this first summer certainly did not benefit me in the ways it professed. Likewise, during my first year of teaching, I grew frustrated with the mundane requirements of Teacher Corps, like writing STAI-format lesson plans and putting together English resources in an easily-accessed portfolio. It seemed that the more 'practical' the courses became, the closer to thoughtless busy work they also became, which obviously does not contribute to creating a thoughtful professional. By the summer before my second year I was in total rebellion against the program; if if this Master's degree was little more than job training and busy work, then I could get it all done while simultaneously deriding the project. And even during that second year when we received a heavy dose of Dr. Mullins (who is universally respected) and guest lectures, I could not help but scorn the ideas of many of our guests even if I admired a few. But now that I am approaching the end of my second year, having grown up in many ways, formed a community of highly intelligent friends with whom I will always be in touch, and partaken in many conversations concerning our shared experiences, I hope that I hold a more professional, mature view even if I still disagree with much of what Teacher Corps is and does - that is, I can appreciate its good intentions as such, even if its practice is much misguided. For example, I now actually plan lessons rather than write lesson plans, although this is contrary to everything taught in a school of education. And perhaps Dr. Mullins was not showing off his own personal endorsements in Mississippi VIP culture but allowing us to judge it on our own. I look back and wish we could have been more academic, learning more history, holding more discussions concerning race and class, and studying more legal issues. But overall, I am no longer the child I was two years ago; I do not know necessarily in what ways I have grown up, nor do I believe that I grew professionally as Teacher Corps might have wished, but I certainly have become a more critical and thoughtful adult in a general way, which is in the end the most important part of growing as a professional.
David Jones's Professional Portfolio
dlmjones@gmail.com
