Introductory Post –TE 823

Hello all, My name is Rose Pompey and I have been teaching three and a half years. I attended the University of Northern Colorado, where I majored in Social Science/Secondary education and completed an endorsement in Teaching English as a Second Language. I graduated in December of 2013 and started my teaching career immediately by accepting a position teaching ESL at a high school in Greeley. After that semester I moved down to the Denver metro area where I spent three years teaching middle school social studies in Aurora. At the end of month I am moving to the other side of the Denver metro area (the NW rather than the SE) where I will be teaching 8th grade social studies at a middle school in Arvada. All of my time teaching has been spent working with highly impacted populations, including students of color, students receiving free/reduced lunch, English Language Learners, and students receiving special education services.

 Outside of work I read extensively, I have two cats, and I like riding my bike. I also enjoy spending time with friends and family. This year I spent the first week of summer in Washington DC with a group of 8th grade students, which I loved. Two weeks I ago I went to Denver Comic Con with some friends from college and at the end of the month I am moving, so I have been attempting to pack and clean. I am taking three classes, which will leave me with just two more to finish up next summer before I can graduate. I have also been enjoying The Handmaid’s Tale on hulu, I highly recommend it.

 The number one work of art that situates my values and motivations as a teacher is Star Trek. For those of you who may not be familiar with Star Trek it is a collection of five (soon to be six) TV series and 13 movies. The series is set in the future where the people of Earth live in harmony with races from other planets in The United Federation of Planets. In Star Trek poverty, and even the need for money, has been eliminated. In the words of Captain Picard “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force of our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity” (Star Trek: First Contact). This is why I teach. I teach so that we can work to better ourselves and our society and move towards something like the federation depicted in Star Trek. I believe that every student has the capacity to learn and the right to an education. I teach to ensure that every student gets access to that education.