Babies Making Me Proud

Two of my babies made me unbelievably proud today. I can't even express how much...

Recently, Keith over at Harvard asked if two of my students would come to the Alumni of Color Conference to speak about our class. He was organizing the youth panel for the conference called Responding With Delight: Youth Droppin Knowledge. The goal of the panel was to highlight classrooms that honored student voice, critical thinking, and student leadership while demanding academic excellence. We were on the panel with two of the students and one of the teachers that wrote the SAT Bronx book from What Kids Can Do.

I have so many amazing students who could have represented the school and the class but as I went through lists of students, I tried to think of young peoplewho were not usually asked to speak for the class. Our school has "go to" students in each class. While I acknowledge the strength of those students, I wanted to ask students who don't usually get attention though they have the potential to shine bright during occasions such as this.

I'm so happy I asked the two students that I did. They spoke about the class and discussed how it has helped them learn more about themselves, about Boston, and about other students in their class. I wish I had a video of how well they did. They fielded all questions so well and the audience absolutely loved them.

One of my ed professors at BC is now at Harvard. She came to see the panel and at the end of the question and answer portion of the panel, she spoke to my students about how inspiring they were and applauded the work that they were doing. She told me how proud she was of me and that meant so much.

I know I'm no expert teacher, I'm still learning, but damn, they made me soooo proud today!