Everything Literacy and childhood education

From Mom to Educator: Why I’m Trading In My Pencil for a Platform

I’m Phatima, your passionate librarian. I’m loud and a bit different than what one might imagine when they think of a librarian. I decided to create this blog because I have so many thoughts, opinions and ideas. I’m a big journal person. I mean pencil and paper journaling. So, I figured, let’s start a blog. 

I’m 42 and teaching is my second career. I wanted to become an educator because I was noticing a lot of gaps in my, at the time 7-year-old’s education. He was a Black and Native American boy going to a predominately white school. I am not saying the gaps were due to his ethnicity, however, as a community, we noticed that a large percentage of the male students that lived on the reservation were being classified with disabilities. 

My son was two grade levels behind in reading all through elementary school. I noticed that teachers seemed to show little patience pertaining to his education and coming up with solutions to get him on track. I attended all meetings and was actively reading with him at home. It wasn’t the fact that my son wasn’t on grade level, it was the notion that he was unable to catch up behind their actions.

I cannot be a hundred percent sure, however, I felt that they believed because he lived on the reservation, he was unable to learn. We did eventually move and my son graduated high school on grade level and is very intelligent. I say this because I, as an educator, understand that there are many components that go into learning. Children learn different, there might be disabilities, maturity, etc. However, the teacher and the parents are supposed to be a team, and my son’s teacher was not on my team.

After countless meetings, I realized I needed to make a difference in the education system. That fact that the U.S. Department of Education (NCES) documented Black and Native Americans gaps in achievements says we have to do something. 

Topics I’ll be touching on: 

• Gaps in reading proficiency
• Observations from years of working with students and their families.
• Classroom management and educational topics.
• Book recommendations for both children and adult.

I hope through my post you feel you know me. Please join me on this journey.

Have you ever felt that you needed to change careers to fix a problem in your community?