Shanita Modlin

I knew I wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl. I remember always loving school—I would play school with my friends and my stuffed animals. And I loved my teachers. They were really good teachers. My father was a physical education teacher, and my parents were very big on serving and helping people, so all of those things came together to create this love for teaching in me.

There are other alternative certification programs I looked at, like TFA and Urban Teachers, but one of the things that makes Baltimore City Teaching Residency (BCTR) so special is that they focus on more than just great teaching strategies—they really home in on Baltimore City and on connecting to the Baltimore child. I wanted to be connected to Baltimore.

We were not just cohort members, we were a family. We built those solid relationships, and I’m still in touch with my cohort members today. We’ve gone to weddings and birthday parties; they are still a part of my community.

I love seeing the children grow and the impact that education has on them as they go from not believing in themselves to realizing they can do it. As teachers, we have to see past the dents and gaps in our communities, in our students, and look at what they can be, not just what the world sees. That’s the impact that education has, and the impact that the community has had on me—that I am able to see my potential, my children’s potential, and the beauty of that, it brightens, it colors, it illuminates.

I believe in what we do, in our mission. I believe it can work, and I am a witness to that, with firsthand experience. If you have that deep love for children, BCTR is going to be the best decision you will ever make in getting exposure to education. If children are not your ‘why,’ this program is not where you need to be. But if it is, BCTR is going to prepare and support you. We have something special, that BCTR magic. Once it is sprinkled on you, you have no other option but to change, to go forth, and be great in the classroom.

I’d go back to potential. The world only sees what’s in front of them. Rita Pierson said, “Every child deserves a champion.” I mean, let’s get in the trenches, roll up our sleeves, and become a real superhero—not by trying to save our children, but by doing the work. Do what’s right, not easy. Kids need someone who isn’t going to quit on them. The character Olivia Pope from the TV series Scandal used to talk about gladiators: teachers don’t get to quit or run. We live to fight another day.