I just recently applied for a job. It was one of those “I’m good where I am, but let’s just see where this goes” kind of applications. Truth be told, there is a part of me that misses teaching high school French. I recently asked my principal if they wanted me to be a SEL teacher or a French teacher. That’s how little it feels like I focus on French in my classroom. So, in this job application, I revised my cover letter and the following just came out. I almost uploaded it to the online application. But then I googled “language teacher cover letters” and saw many examples that looked much more professional (snooze) and revised it again.
To Whom It May Concern:
As my fourteenth year in the classroom is coming to a close, I, like many educators, have been changed forever by the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. It has given me pause and made me reflect on why I became an educator and how my job suddenly looks very different than it did 14 years ago. To say I have had an epiphany over the past four years and during the pandemic seems cliché, but then again, if I didn’t have an epiphany, something would be drastically wrong. My resume and credentials are attached. Here is my story.
In the beginning, I loved to learn, speak, teach, and basically breathe French and Francophone culture. It was my passion which fueled my desire to share with others and to hopefully impart this same enthusiasm on students. And I was successful in doing so, for the most part. I’ve heard from many former students that I inspired them to study French in college, to pursue a career in education, or to travel. But, as I look back on those early years, I now wonder….who were the students that I missed? Who were the students that I did not inspire, that I did not see, or that I did not hear? What color were they? How did they feel in my classroom? Actually, these aren’t wonderings at all. I know the answers to all of them. The majority of the students I missed or did not truly see or hear were black or brown and they felt disconnected, uninspired, and unseen. And what pains me is that I am also a BIPOC … and I have also felt disconnected and unseen in a classroom, particularly in elementary school. Growing up half-Korean in late 80s early 90s Alabama….is not for the weak. More on that later.
Teaching middle school for the past three years and teaching in a pandemic have opened my eyes to several realities. The first and most important being that education is so much more than one’s content area and, whether it’s realistic or not, the expectation of a teacher is to reach all children. Teaching in a pandemic has taught me that the rapport I build with my students is the most important element to my job and the content comes second. Will this year’s students leave me having mastered -ER verb conjugations and simple sentence structure, and be able to have a short conversation in French? Maybe. But the more important question is will they leave me knowing that I heard their voice and that I cared about them and their experience? Yes, absolutely. In fact, at the end of this school year, my greatest success stories will quite possibly have nothing to do with French. But, these success stories will have everything to do with my students knowing that I see and hear them, in spite of the remote environment and in spite of teaching mostly to a sea of black screens.
Another reality with which I have become very familiar is the systemic inequities in education. In order to understand this inequity and to fight against it, as an educator I have to look inward and examine my own biases. The numerous workshops and discussions in which I have participated have taught me that staying quiet to avoid saying the wrong thing is actually worse than to speak out and risk being misunderstood. Middle school and a global pandemic have taught me that I am a part of this seriously flawed system and the only way to make it better is to accept this, move forward, and work to do better. The question that constantly echoes in the back of my mind is how does this fit with teaching French?. The answer I have come up with so far is that the students’ wellbeing always has to come first. So, if that means I do not teach French for a few days or even a week because I’m working on building community in my classroom, then that’s what my new success looks like.
Maya Angelou said “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” I’d like to think that my teaching philosophy heeds this advice. Being an educator has become so much more than facilitating target language comprehensibility or planning with the Backward Design model. Core Practices are important and IB rubrics have their place. But the best, and most important, part of this job will always be helping my students become better humans by teaching them to accept and love themselves and others. And if one day that stops being the best and most important part of this job, then I will know that I am done teaching. A very wise person told me as a student teacher….”First, they have to love you and then they will love French.” I have since argued against this many times in my head; not every student will love me and every student will most certainly not love French. If I were to revise that statement to better fit 2021, it would be this…”First, they have to know that YOU love and value THEM and then they MIGHT love French, but they will DEFINITELY know that you believe in them.”
Midlife Yogi 