Do you know where you’d like to
see yourself in a year, five years, and ten years from now? I do. I believe God
has a way of shaking up plans each of us has in mind for ourselves, but I don’t
think it hurts to envision and work towards different goals and experiences as your life progresses. One day I wrote out different lists of things I’d
like to do and experience over the course of a year, five years, and ten years.
I prefer to keep my lists private for now, but I encourage you to make lists of
your own. It’s simple. Make three different lists -- the first starting with
one year, the second starting with what you’d like to accomplish in five years,
and the third will focus on where you’d like to see yourself in ten years. It’s
cool getting an idea of how you’d like your life to change and I hope your
lists reveal surprising things to you.
I’m a Black educator in my fifth year of teaching middle school English, and in my third as the 8th Grade English PLC (Professional Learning Community) Lead. And while I genuinely enjoy the purposeful work I get to do, seeing the growth of my scholars, and continuing to hone my skills in a content area I’ve loved since I was a little girl, I’ve had to confront some unpleasant experiences in this space. I’d been through much worse when I was an academic advisor at a Christian university. Racism, sexism, harassment, and workplace bullying were sadly norms in that environment. However, some of what I’ve experienced as a Black educator hasn’t been normal … It doesn’t seem normal to be the only Black educator in my department – in a predominantly Black school. One of my Black colleagues once said, “It should look like a Tyler Perry movie in here.” But it doesn’t. It didn’t feel normal being reprimanded in a meeting (during my second year of teaching) by an administrator who went in on...