This Teacher Believes That Leadership Begins in the Classroom
After 10 years as a teacher, Teach For America alum Melissa Rowland still finds education to be a rewarding career, but hopes to take the next step as a school administrator.
This Teacher Believes That Leadership Begins in the Classroom
After 10 years as a teacher, Teach For America alum Melissa Rowland still finds education to be a rewarding career, but hopes to take the next step as a school administrator.
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Melissa Rowland: I've been in the classroom for ten years and every year is different. You have a different set of kids, you have a different set of needs.
Do you need one minute? Two minutes? Three?
These students have light bulbs in their head that just spark up. And it's amazing to be able to see the growth from the beginning to the end. My passion is being able to see students make growth and make those connections.
Teach For America has prepared me for the work that I'm currently doing today. I had an amazing team leader in Las Vegas who really helped me develop my teacher voice, develop my classroom management and gave me the confidence to lead my classroom. So we're working on the lul- sound. What I'm most proud of as a teacher during my ten years of teaching is the growth that my students are making in the classroom.
I have students come to me who are in fourth and fifth grade and they're performing at a second, first, kindergarten level, and they're making two to three years growth before they leave me.
-Ladle.
Student: Ladle into glass jars.
Melissa Rowland: I lead an after-school program with my co-lead Ms. Bennett, and with a group of future leaders. And we're helping them develop ideas and preparing speeches and be able to present those ideas in a large setting.
Student: By show of hands how many of you have plants at home?
Melissa Rowland: We’re instilling in them what we feel that leaders and change makers should do for the community, for their school and for the world.
Xenia: Ms. Rowland helped me because she helped me build my confidence and she helped me write my speech with sentences that make sense and supporting details. My program will help students with language development and motor skills. When I was upstage, I was nervous, but I was still believing in myself. This will be a fun program but still be educational for the students.
-Thank you.
Melissa Rowland: Teach For America has definitely taught me the why. Why are you in this work? Why are you in the classroom? Why are you your students biggest cheerleaders?
Do you need one minute? Two minutes? Three?
These students have light bulbs in their head that just spark up. And it's amazing to be able to see the growth from the beginning to the end. My passion is being able to see students make growth and make those connections.
Teach For America has prepared me for the work that I'm currently doing today. I had an amazing team leader in Las Vegas who really helped me develop my teacher voice, develop my classroom management and gave me the confidence to lead my classroom. So we're working on the lul- sound. What I'm most proud of as a teacher during my ten years of teaching is the growth that my students are making in the classroom.
I have students come to me who are in fourth and fifth grade and they're performing at a second, first, kindergarten level, and they're making two to three years growth before they leave me.
-Ladle.
Student: Ladle into glass jars.
Melissa Rowland: I lead an after-school program with my co-lead Ms. Bennett, and with a group of future leaders. And we're helping them develop ideas and preparing speeches and be able to present those ideas in a large setting.
Student: By show of hands how many of you have plants at home?
Melissa Rowland: We’re instilling in them what we feel that leaders and change makers should do for the community, for their school and for the world.
Xenia: Ms. Rowland helped me because she helped me build my confidence and she helped me write my speech with sentences that make sense and supporting details. My program will help students with language development and motor skills. When I was upstage, I was nervous, but I was still believing in myself. This will be a fun program but still be educational for the students.
-Thank you.
Melissa Rowland: Teach For America has definitely taught me the why. Why are you in this work? Why are you in the classroom? Why are you your students biggest cheerleaders?
