I was lecturing a unit on transcendentalism to first block. I cursed as I chipped my tooth and I promptly fled to the bathroom. I looked in the tiny mirror and wiped away the blood. Three teeth in the sink. Four. The smell of the decaying molars stung so sharp in my nose that I screamed for help.
I flopped out of my bed. It was 5:30 on a Monday before school.
I spent that morning obsessed with finding meaning to my only “teaching dream”.
“For our Do-Now activity, I would like everyone to share a dream, and use elements of symbolism.”
A student interjected: “We should use the internet to get professional help.”
I swear my class is full of geniuses.
After Googling, I never wrote in that journal:“When your teeth fall out in a dream, it usually means that, in waking life, you’ve allowed something out of your mouth that should have remained in there permanently” (Dr.Oz).
My time is running out… In less than a month my mentor teacher takes over and I will be stripped of my status. My own school had two open positions and did not consider my work real experience. The multiple job fairs have not landed me a seat in any principal’s panel interview.
I won’t allow teaching to walk out of my life permanently.
Teaching as Storytelling 
Throughout your piece, there is a truly unique tone. You create a vision while also allowing us, the readers, to get a intimate view into your thoughts and insecurities. I appreciate the craft in this piece because it is so widespread and abundant. I could hear and see you flopping out the bed, see the worry of not getting job and sense the determination that you will not give up on your dream.
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Hi! I just wanted to say that I thought your reflection was very good, with a well-written arc and well-paced theme of permanency. I also thought your hook at the beginning of the piece was very intriguing and what inspired me to read further and (subsequently) comment. You also used your language (such as “promptly fled” and “obsessed” and “Googling” and the like) superbly, allowing your audience to get an excellent view of the feelings and emotions you were conveying and getting them involved strongly in the narrative. Overall, well done. 🙂
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Hello! My name is Lexi Moberly and I am a Middle Grade Education major with a concentration in Social Studies and English. In my EME 452 class (fancy name for “How to Teach Grammar”), we’re learning about different ways author’s connect to their readers and relay a certain feeling to their readers. I love how you let the readers inside your mind during your excerpt. How you go from student dialog then to your personal thought of “I swear my class is full of geniuses”makes the readers feel as if they were inside your brain, hearing your thoughts. I also noticed your sentence structure…in class we talk about “short, short, long” sentences and in tour first paragraph you have a perfect example! “Three teeth in the sink. Four. The smell of the decaying molars stung so sharp in my nose that I screamed for help.” This has a certain rhetorical affect on the reader and makes them read the text in a more meaningful way. I love this story and I thought it was so relatable.
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