KIPP Destiny is now
officially open for change. All the summer training, professional development
and classroom setup… and it was time. On Monday I may have felt like I was
drowning, much like comedian Jim Gaffigan describes having four children
“Imagine you are drowning and someone hands you a baby.” Well… imagine having
24 of them. However, despite the
realities of classroom potty accidents and teeth being lost by the second, by
Friday I fell in love with each of my kippsters.
An essential piece of the
KIPP culture is establishing a relationship with our kippsters and their
families by going on home visits. My co-teacher and I were able to go to
several of our students’ houses the first week of school and get to know our
kippsters and their families. These visits have already made such an impact on
our classroom and have enabled us to show our parents that this work is a
partnership and that we will combine forces to be this change.
We asked our parents about
the dreams and goals they had for their kids this year and in the years to
come. I will never forget the way their faces lit up when talking about their
child’s education and how I felt knowing that I would be helping make these
dreams possible. One of my parents in particular spoke about events that led
her to stay in Dallas and described it as “I just believe there was a reason we
were supposed to stay. I just have such a good feeling about KIPP.” I remember
the goosebumps that appeared as I pictured her daughter with a college diploma.
Every day I feel so
thankful and blessed to be a founding teacher and to be apart of the legacy
that KIPP Destiny will persist to achieve. I could never have imagined that I
would be ecstatic to wake up every day at 5 AM (after I get over the fact that
it is 5 AM) to get to the school to work with my inspirational team, amazing
co-teacher and see my kippsters.
My co-teacher has been
such an inspiration to me and I am beyond excited to see what is to come from
our partnership this year. She is such a ray of sunshine and brings upmost
positivity to every challenge along the way… even when we decided to conduct
the ever popular shaving cream activity ambitiously early for our students.
Yep, I am talking about the one where you allow them to spread shaving cream on
their desks and draw shapes and equations to practice using manipulatives. But
then in reality what happens is they decide to clap their hands and shaving
cream splatters onto all of the student’s new uniforms… how did I not see this
one coming?
Can’t wait to see what the
next week will bring and the growth that will continue.
