Reflections from a Black Girl Teacher by Sharday Boyd
I remember the very beginning of entering my journey as a novice teacher. I was in a
room full of educators with various years of experience in education and I was just
looking to find my way. Someone asked me what is something I am looking forward to
as a first-year teacher, I paused for a minute and thought about it then responded, “I’m
looking forward to finding my Teacher Identity.” My teaching style and teaching
personality were all traits I was looking to establish right away to differentiate myself
from the great crop of teachers we already had on board.
My journey as a student in the public- school system played a huge part in me wanting
to pursue this profession when I get older. I’ve had teachers who’ve had a positive
influence in my life and I also remember the negative ones. I wanted to reciprocate the
positive energy that was given to me during my time as a student, and give it to all the
students I crossed paths with. The feeling of joy of working with children, becoming the
voice for social justice in education, teaching black and brown children that look like me,
and inspiring them and letting them know they are capable of beating the odds that are
stacked against them. These were all motivating factors into me becoming a teacher. I
knew when I chose to be a teacher it was more than just a job it was a calling.
I’m a general education teacher at a charter school located on the West side of Harlem.
For the past three years, I’ve taught grades K-2. I’m going into my fourth year teaching
at my school and going into my 3rd year of being a lead teacher. I’ve come a long way
from that first day of teacher orientation looking to find my “Teacher Identity”. My first
year I was an empire fellow teacher attending a grad school teaching program. In my
second year as a grad student, I became a first-year lead teacher. The first year was
filled with ups and downs, stumbles and falls, encouragement, and discouragement. I
wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst. I taught first grade and knew most of the students
from kindergarten. Some students were in my kindergarten class and other students I’ve
taught in guided reading small groups. My Co-teacher and I had one thing in common
we were both grad students in a teacher program and first-year lead teachers. We were
both nervous about leading the show without a ton of experience but we became very
supportive of one another. I became a human sponge and soaked up as much
information I could from my Co-teacher. Although I learned a lot from her, my best
learning came through trial and error. I made so many mistakes and learned from them.
Each mistake taught me a lesson on how to improve my performance the next time
around.
One of the best experiences teaching my first-grade class was the relationships I was
able to build with my students. I taught the majority of my first-grade class in
Kindergarten. I had the opportunity to teach them again which allowed me to build
stronger relationships and create new relationships with new students who transferred
to our school first-grade year. Discouraging times came when our class data from IAs
(Interim Assessments) were the lowest of all the three first grade classes. What do you
expect the outcome would be from two first-year lead teachers Lol. I noticed students’
performance prevailed in class but when it came to the IAs most of my students had
trouble transferring what they learned in class and applying it on the interim
assessments. Also, some of the students weren’t good test-takers. There were times I
blamed myself and my teaching for the reason why they didn’t excel in IAs. Maybe I
didn’t teach the material effectively or maybe I didn’t make the material sticky enough
for them to grasp on to. To improve my students’ learning and my teaching skills, many
instructional interventions included small groups while one teacher-led a lesson the
other teacher pulled small groups to help students who were struggling in ELA, math,
and writing along within the moment coaching from my school dean/manager from in class
observations.
The school year 2019-2020 will be unforgettable in my teaching career. In my second
year as a lead teacher, I’ve taught 2nd grade. Transitioning to remote learning due to
the Covid-19 pandemic shifted everything. In the beginning, many students had trouble
adjusting from being in a classroom learning and seeing their friends in school to getting
used to seeing their teachers and friends on a computer screen for months. Also, it was
a challenge getting my students logged on to google classroom and zoom because some
of their parents weren’t tech-savvy. There were times I had to assist students and their
parents via phone and facetime on how to type their full email address and password to
log on google classroom and log in to join zoom meetings for our daily lessons. Parents
were stressed during this time because they were working from home along with
dealing with personal situations at home with family. Experiencing and going through
this tough pandemic time makes me grateful for all of my students who impacted me so
far in my education journey as a Black educator. I didn’t realize how much I impacted
my students until I heard my parents repeatedly thanks me for being the best teacher to
them.
The COVID-19 pandemic, virtual teaching, remote learning, police brutality, and
protesting that is going on around the world made me realize as a Black educator I
needed to be more active and speak on issues that affected me as well as my students.
Going into my third year of teaching I look forward to building new relationships with
my new students in the first grade, communicating and collaborating with parents,
collaborating with other educators, implementing new teaching strategies, perfecting
current teaching skills, and continuing to learn and grow as a Black educator. As I
continue on my teacher journey, I will continue to make progress on solidifying my
teacher identity and fulfill my purpose as a black woman. I owe all of my students a truly
authentic and enriching education. Many veteran teachers have said “you won’t be the
best teacher until your 5th year of teaching or the 7th year of teaching. My teacher
journey is ongoing and I am only scratching the surface in fulfilling my purpose as a black
girl teacher finding my true authentic teacher identity.
