It Was Time to Do More

My freshman year, I really, really wanted to go.

There were seven seniors going to the SCAMLE Conference, and I did not really know a single one of them. I remember telling Dr. Martin I really wanted to go and Dr. Martin said, “Okay, you can go.” And I went. I did not know what I was walking into. I just knew I wanted to be there.

That was four years ago. I have been back every year since.

I grew up knowing I wanted to teach middle school. Middle school years are hard for every student, and when I look back at my own, those were the years I had the most support from teachers who showed up for me in ways that went beyond content. They taught me what care looks like in a classroom. That stayed with me. I went to Winthrop specifically because they had a Middle Level Program, and I committed myself to it fully, taking on leadership in our Collegiate Middle Level Association almost from the beginning. When something needed to happen, I made it happen. That was just who I was.

Dr. Martin saw it. She has been my professor, my advisor, and if I am being honest, one of the most important people in my life. I have sat in her office and cried, laughed, and worked through everything in between. She has never sugarcoated anything for me, and I have never wanted her to. We have that kind of relationship.

Last year, when we came back from the conference, she looked at me and said “You have been enough times to SCAMLE. It is time to do more. You’ve been to enough presentations. You know what a good presentation looks like and what it doesn’t. Let’s present.”

So we did. This year, I co-presented with another student and two of our faculty members on hosting college interns with purpose. Two student perspectives, two faculty perspectives, what makes an internship experience actually work for everyone in the room. I had presented in classrooms before. This was different. This was a room full of middle school educators from across the state, and I was teaching them something.

I will not pretend the year was simple. I came in with a full plate. I had an early Friday afternoon meeting with Dr. Martin and the SCPOMLE organization before the conference even began. I was also receiving the Teacher Candidate to Watch Award that evening, the first recipient from Winthrop University. And I was responsible for eleven students from our program, nine of whom were attending for the very first time. I had to apologize to all of them at the end. I told them: I am sorry I was not there to walk you through every session. I had expected to guide them more closely, and they had probably expected that too. But what happened instead was that they figured out how to navigate on their own, and I think that was its own kind of lesson. You can only lead from afar sometimes. That is still leading.

What I have come to understand about this conference is that it meets you wherever you are. My freshman year, it was a room full of people who loved middle schoolers, and I had never been around that before, not all at once, not like that. By junior year, I was bringing others and watching them have the same experience. This year, I was at the front of a session, and a woman I had met at the national conference in Indianapolis came into the room to support me. She is not even from South Carolina. She works for AMLE and lives in Indiana. And she came.

Having support within the state and outside the state, at the national level, is so meaningful. Part of the reason I keep coming back.

I have a notebook full of things I have written over the past four years. Quotes from keynote speakers. Strategies I tried in my field placements. I brought my ideas to my mentor teachers and said, “Can we do this?” I graduate in May. My first classroom is coming. Every single page in that notebook is coming with me.

I did not really know those seven seniors when I showed up as a freshman. I just knew I wanted to be there. I am glad I went.