What I'll Be and What I Am by Brooklyn Lbl

What I'll be and what I am

Is the kind of teacher you will slam

Not because I cannot teach

But because U don't understand how I reach

I don't fit what U may praise and want

I cannot be the person who would greatly haunt

Me if I were 2 convert 2 your style

I cannot teach without a smile

What I'll be and what I am

Is a teacher second but first a black man

Yes there are times that the stakes are high

But U don't determine that it's done by I

And I cannot be frameworked by Danielson

Or anything that is learned in a manual, son

Measuring me by test scores sucks

It's like determining a chicken's future by its clucks

What I'll be and what I am

Is a lifelong learner who doesn't fit your plan

Your thinking is dominated by domains And data

My teaching greets that realm with a "hi, hater!"

Breaking spirits of teachers until minds meld

Won't quiet us all 4 I cannot be quelled

What I'll be and what I am

Is the the kind of teacher U don't understand

U love 2 evaluate people's pedagogy as weak

But academics aren't the only way learning can speak

I've in fact heard it scream through dreams more than tests

I've felt the pulses of hope beat through young chests

My exchange with them is genuine and real

I don't need your approval 2 validate the success we feel

What I'll be and what I am

Is myself a teacher U cannot stand