Becoming Señora Wallace

In case we haven’t met yet, my name is Katie, and I’m an aspiring teacher. I joined the League of Education Voters at the beginning of July as a stepping stone to my next challenge. Teacher quality and preparation is something that comes up in conversation daily in the LEV office. Fortunately, I am on the brink of knowing firsthand what teacher prep looks like in Washington State. Let me tell you about it…

They say nothing makes sense in your twenties. You’re young. You don’t know what you want.

But I do know what I want, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I want to teach Spanish in Seattle Public Schools, preferably at a high school in south Seattle beginning in fall 2010.

I thought I “needed” to do “other things” first. For six years I was convinced that I would be a sportswriter. A few weeks into my first quarter at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, I woke up to the reality that writing about baseball everyday was not going to be as fulfilling as it was fun to dream about.

The funny thing is that I have always wanted to teach, yet I always had an excuse as to why I should wait, why I should pursue other careers.

Then again, maybe there were reasons that I was discouraged from teaching. It is pretty daunting to waltz into a broken system. Our failure to adequately fund our schools is aggravating. It is disheartening that we don’t invest more in our youth and our teachers. When you look at teacher salaries and school funding, it appears that we don’t put a high value on education.

Why would I spend roughly $80,000 on Bachelors degrees (journalism and Spanish) and eagerly apply to graduate school for my Masters in Teaching (which means another $30,000 on top of outstanding student loans!) to go into a career where I work 10-12 hours a day, take my work home with me and start out earning less than $40,000 per year?

Because there’s nothing else I would rather do. I have never felt so compelled to commit to anything in my whole life. Despite the pessimism and harsh realities of the education system, I can’t wait to have my own classroom.

As a corps member with City Year Seattle/King County last year, I had the opportunity to tutor in a Seattle high school two days a week. Those two days a week clearly reminded me of a) why I’m up for the challenge and b) why I can’t wait any longer.

Two years from now I will be standing in front of my own classroom. However, until then, I have my work cut out for me.

First step – grad school applications. Eek… October 1 is closer than I thought… I’ve been sensing the urgency of jumping into education, but this quickly approaching application deadline adds a different kind of pressure! Thankfully, I have already passed my entrance exams – the WEST-B and the Praxis II in Spanish. We’ll dive into a discussion of these educator skills tests next week…

I invite you to join me in this adventure. I’ll update you every Friday, and if something comes up during the week that I can’t wait to post, I’ll fill you in. Oh, and by the way, starting Tuesday of next week, I’ll be volunteering in high school Spanish classes once again… stay tuned!