Hello all,
My name is Rose Pompey and I am a middle school teacher in
Arvada Colorado.
I have been teaching four and a half years, since I graduated
from the University of Northern Colorado in December of 2013. I began my career
teaching ESL at a high school in Greeley where I worked with students in grades
9-12, ages 14-21, from a wide variety of different countries, many of whom were
refugees. After spending a semester with them I moved down to the Denver area
where I taught both “regular” 6th and 7th grade social
studies and sheltered 6th and 7th grade social studies
for students learning English. I was again at diverse and highly impacted
school were I worked with students from a number of different countries. I
taught there for three years before moving to my current school where I am now
teaching 8th grade social studies. The students I work with
currently are less diverse in terms of what countries they were born in,
primarily the US with a few from Mexico and two from China. Overall, the switch
was a good one and I’m glad to be in the school I am now, but I do miss having
students from so many different places.
Outside of work, I am an avid reader, since the school year
started in August I have read over 60 books. One of my favorite things to do is
curl up on my couch with my 2 cats and a good book. I was born and raised in
Colorado, but I love the ocean and if I ever leave the state, I am moving to a
beach town. I am also taking my last two classes before I complete my masters,
this one and TE 872. I will be done June 28th!
This picture is of me and most of the students in one of my
sheltered classes 2 years ago. I choose this photo for a couple of reasons. The
first reason is that there are students from 7 countries represented in this
picture alone. Most of my personal experience in global education has been in
working with students who are new to the United States and I love learning from
their different perspectives on and experiences with the world and education. The
other reason I choose this picture is because I believe that part of my job as
a teacher, particularly as a social studies teacher, is to help my students
become global citizens capable of living and working in a society that is globally
connected more and more every day. My hope is that this class will help me be
better able to do just that.
Hi Rose,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. Congrats, again, on the new job! I hope it's been a good year!!
Sixty books while teaching? I love it. That was my way--and still, to a large degree, is--of staying engaged as a teacher. I've started to add a lot of podcast listening to that mix, but it's cool how I see things come together from my personal and professional reading. It's my main advice to any new teacher, but especially to a graduate student: Keep your personal reading alive!
I love your picture. Thank you for sharing your students with us! They are a beautiful lot. I'm sure you miss them a lot. Global education can be thought about as a multiplicity of relationships across time and space, but also the lived consequence of "shrinking" time and space. The world "comes to us"--and in this case, it's much more real and concrete than thinking about trade relationships with China! Here is a way of meeting the world in its complexity each day. I think these experiences will give you a great context for our course readings.
Take care!
Kyle