At the beginning of my matriculation at NMSU, my goal was to learn so that I could better help my students. At the end of my master’s degree, I feel like there is so much still to learn both in the world of educational research about adolescent literacy and conducting research about adolescent literacy and young adult literature that I want to continue formal education in this arena.
I have been told by other educators and by honors students that I am wasting my time teaching the “riffraff” that take Title I. I believe that all students deserve the best teachers, not just the students that are intrinsically motivated and are already actively developing their critical thinkers. Thus, the pursuit of my doctoral degree, as was with the pursuit of my master’s degree, is me furthering my own teaching and understanding of literacy and the struggling adolescent reader, and becoming a better teacher for those students.
In the long run, I want to become a teacher educator. From the time I accepted my post in Deming Public Schools, I’ve had teachers refer struggling readers to me. And while I recognize that these teachers are doing the student a service by sending them to my classroom for additional help, I think all teachers should be equipped with the strategies struggling readers need to be successful within their content area classes. I am uncertain, as of yet, whether I want to teach in the higher education or become a clinician and run professional development for schools.
