Patricia Forg
English Teacher
Credential Program
Reflection
On this page, I'll reflect on my first year of teaching as a resident at High Tech High. This reflection will primarily cover my growth and where I stand now, with thoughts on what I consider to be my teaching superpowers, my self-identified areas of growth, and my thoughts on what it means to teach for justice.
Teaching Superpowers
I believe one of my main teaching superpowers lies in my passion for the subject that I teach. I have deep and meaningful connections to the content, which allows me to bring positive and excited energy to class every day. I'm a believer in making your own weather, and I've found that my own enthusiasm for the content encourages students to find their own positive connections to what we're learning. I'm also a voracious reader with carefully cultivated reading habits and skills that I bring to my students, and in the same way that I believe you make your own weather, I believe that only a reader can make more readers. Because I know more about books than I know about anything, I've always been able to find a story that even the most hesitant of readers can connect to.
​
My other teaching superpower is my ability to connect with my students. I aim to be not only a positive force for my students, but a safe person to whom they can talk to comfortably about school or life. By the end of each semester, I have cultivated a strong rapport with students, built by my ability to gauge and respond to their needs. I make an effort to be culturally responsive in my teaching, connecting content to students' lives and unpacking their own experiences through the texts that we read. I'm a strong proponent of work that involves identity, belonging, and sense-making about the world – and this is supported by my care and understanding of my students.
Areas for Growth
If I have learned anything over the last 9 months, it's that there's always room for growth in terms of classroom management. Having moved from an 11th to a 10th grade classroom, I understand fully how much classroom management has to be adjusted based on classroom culture and the students. What I would like to grow in specifically is ensuring student completion of work, which is largely effected by classroom management and culture. Moving forward, I plan to use my abilities to connect with students and bring enthusiasm into the classroom to encourage completion of student work without relying on grades as a student motivator.
​
Part of this can be achieved by my own presence in the classroom, especially in finding confidence in my role as a teacher and warm demander. I've seen progress in myself since the start of the year, but I look forward to my continued growth as I learn to navigate different classrooms and different teaching styles that will work best with each group of students.
Teaching for Justice
Teaching for justice requires consideration and passion for social change, and one of the most important acknowledgments that can be made in this journey is that of the importance of intersectionality. Justice and injustice amongst various groups of people are intrinsically linked, and in order to see a full picture, one must be able to see how deeply race, gender, and sexuality can change the way someone experiences the world.
​
Teaching for justice means not only acknowledging this injustice, but acknowledging my own position of power as a white educator. As an English teacher, I feel responsible to ensure that all students are seen and represented in the content we cover. This means that not only will my classroom content be de-colonized, but that this content will be used effectively to inspire change and a full education on justice and injustice, both in the United States as well as around the world.
​
I am eager to move forward in education and explore my passion for intersectional teaching. My hope is to educate students about quiet realities that are often overlooked, such as the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women (for which MMIW is a remarkable nation-wide movement), or the disparity of abuse faced by Black and bisexual women compared to white and straight women.
Looking Forward
Looking forward towards the rest of my career, I'm eager to pursue a deeper understanding of literacy and how it can be most effectively taught, particularly in an era of a decline in literacy. My hope is to explore the following questions:
​
-
How do we support students in developing as readers?
-
How might I design a rich and varied reading experience for students?
​
​
