Blog #5

For this blog, please find two different places where Carol makes a statement or quotes someone else, and this statement really touches you...  really calls to your heart.
In your blog response, for each statement, give the page number where it is found in the book, copy the most important portion of the statement, and briefly tell why it matters to you -- why it has significant meaning for you.


On page 25 in the text Carol quotes Barbara Kingsolver who "reminds us that the very least we ought to expect of ourselves is that we figure out what we hope for in this life. The most we can do is to make sure we live inside our hopes rather than admiring them from a distance."


I absolutely love this quote. It is a lovely reminder to me that it is important to remain hopeful of the goals and ambitions we have in this life.  Hope is such a powerful word to me because sometimes in life it is the only thing left we have to hold on to. A hope for something better to come. A hope that everything will turn out okay. A hope for the betterment of someone around me. As a teacher my hopes revolve around my students. I want my hopes to become their hopes and their hopes to become mine. Sometimes we are the last thing students have to hold on to. The hope of something better. The hope for a second chance, to succeed, and reveal their true selves to someone. 


On page 58, when asked by Carol to "invest in me" Mrs. Wannamaker (her 9th grade German teacher)  replied, "I will learn about you and do whatever it takes, using this subject matter, to make sure you are a fuller and more potent human being than you were when you walked in this room. Please be my colleague in that quest."


I was blown away by this response. The passion that this teacher had for her career and for her students is a trait I would love to emulate. As a student I can't imagine another response that would have a greater impact on me. If I knew that my teacher was going to invest everything she could in me I would step up to the plate and make her proud. Teachers like this are a reminder to me of how much we can effect our students in their success and their self esteem as a learner. Their educational quest is a joint effort with the teacher and as a hallmark in differentiation I can see the importance of that teamwork and the lasting impact it has. A teacher's job isn't a nine month gig. It's an opportunity to build relationships that will last for years.