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“A Reflection”  By JV Corey Hubbard

Published on August 15th, 2016 in Margaret Donnelly O'Connor Education Center

I’ve always thought I would make a great first grade teacher. By first grade, students have been in school a year already and know (more or less) how to behave, but they still have the energy, imagination, and quirkiness of small children. One of my favorite things is listening to a six-year-old tell a story. The halting, excited, stumbling-over-their-own-words delivery is so charming. So I always thought I was going to be a first-grade teacher. Then I thought I was going to be a middle school math teacher. Maybe a special education teacher. There were a lot of other “I thoughts” growing up, but I always seemed to come back to teaching.

Thank goodness for this year. I’ve learned that while I believe I would do a great job as a teacher, planning lessons, managing a classroom, grading papers, tracking benchmarks, and preparing for standardized tests are just not my cup of tea. Yet I remain so grateful for my year of service at the Margaret Donnelly O’Connor Education Center because my time here has reaffirmed for me that I do want to be around the energetic chaos of children forever. I want to be a part of their growing and changing and learning, just not as a classroom teacher. My dream is to work with children, sitting with them as they live their myriad difficult realities. I want to be there as they learn how to participate in the world as their very best selves. The ‘where’ for this dream isn’t clear yet: maybe a school, maybe a shelter, a group foster home, a community center. Who knows? Even though specific details have yet to be solidified, I am excited to know what I am meant to do.