Pearls, Groves, and Texts: Lessons Learned by Teaching ELA in Rural Places

Background

I spent the summer before my first job reading the novels I would teach, planning writing assignments, and thinking about how I would decorate my classroom. I began the first semester ready, with syllabi complete and my room color-coded to organize each class as students stacked journals and submitted work. As the semester began and I met my students, something was missing. What I learned over the next three years was that I needed to partake in my new rural school and community in order to teach ELA in place¹. Throughout this chapter, I offer key moments from my experiences teaching in rural Minnesota that helped me understand what it means to be a teacher and how I use this knowledge to inform continued teacher preparations.