MADISON – Finding a connection with students can be a challenge. Together – two Madison teachers are facing that challenge head on.
Dom, a teacher, who has multicultural roots had a difficult time fitting in as a child but he uses those experiences to relate to the kids he teachers and mentors.
He told, Love Wisconsin, “So that was a weird dynamic trying to find my own identity as a kid. I had a hugely supportive family, but there was a lot of outside racial tension that I was aware of from a young age. I was extremely shy, and for a long time I didn’t feel like I had many peers. I think a lot my challenges stemmed from not being sure where I fit in.”
Dom has recently partnered with Iris, another teacher in Madison. Iris who is Black, teaches at a school where the students rarely see a Black teacher. And Iris uses that to connect with her majority-Black classroom.
“There weren’t very many African American teachers in the school, so the students, many of whom were Black, came in saying, ‘Whoa, Ms. Patterson’s a Black teacher.'”
Read more about how this duo tag-teams in the classroom, via Love Wisconsin.
