A note from Renee Houser
I grew up an avid reader and writer. I loved (and still do) the very act of creating - and yet, I hated school. School and I weren’t designed to work well together. My love of reading and writing only existed outside of the classroom. I would have given up completely on school if it weren’t for a newfound love I discovered - playing field hockey. When it came time to choose a focus of study in college, I chose one that would keep me on the hockey field longer. I chose teaching, not necessarily to teach students, but to coach athletes.
After graduation, I took a coaching position at Columbia University. I also reluctantly put my teaching credentials to use as a substitute. I soon discovered that New York City was filled with some of the most brilliant students and teachers I’ve ever met. Their enthusiasm for learning was contagious. I wanted to be a part of it full-time.
I began teaching at PS 126 in Manhattan, a small school tucked under the Brooklyn Bridge. On September 11, 2001, just a few days into that school year, I was preparing the students in my class to join me for a read aloud when suddenly our entire building shook with a loud bang. Moments later I received a phone call from the office letting me know that my literacy coach wouldn’t be able to join me that morning due to a suspected attack on the World Trade Center. As soon as I hung up the telephone I looked out my window toward the towers. I saw the second plane hit the south tower.
My heart exploded with almost every emotion possible. We tried to normalize our morning until we had more information and then we made sure all students made it safely home. We walked home past hospitals that were too quiet – set up for triage but few patients arrived. Every bodega had food and water available. We shared the sidewalks with fellow New Yorkers covered in debris, ashes, and soot. Every few blocks we turned around to see our city burning with black clouds rising up into the prettiest blue sky you can imagine.
PS 126 was closed for several days while the teachers and staff met together as a team to think through how to return to normal after the tragedy. A new and very different normal. Eventually, the school reopened and we went on with our reading, writing, and thinking while the city was still burning just a few blocks away. The skyline was void of the towers and our hearts were void of the pre-9/11 way of living.
For me, having the privilege of teaching and living in NYC before and after 9/11 is woven into the fabric of my existence both personally and professionally. It has created in me a choice to view everything in the best light possible and to expect and believe in the best from people.
Although life may be filled with struggles I still believe that together we can make this world a better place.
I believe that children are inherently filled with brilliance;
my job as an educator is to allow them to teach me their brilliance. I believe my job is to provoke their learning based on their quirky uniqueness as an individual human first, student second.
I believe that teachers are also brilliant and that they are fully capable as decision makers.
My job is to set up systems to support the strengths that are already happening in classrooms and then to support teachers in their customized learning journey so that both children and teachers are set up to succeed.
I believe that all children and all teachers deserve a team of support.
I believe in the individuality of each student and each teacher and therefore I believe in the importance of differentiated, customized teaching for both students and teachers. I believe that school can be a place that honors every single person; where “student” and “teacher” are interchangeable and not specific to adult or child.
