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Health & Fitness

Westchase Patch Welcomes Tara Payor and her Education Blog!

Facets of education impact all Westchase area residents. What educational topic do you want to have a conversation about? Share your ideas, comments, and questions so that we can blog for education.

Education plays a prominent role in my life.  Writing is, for me, a way of being.  So, when there is an opportunity to write about education, I seize it.  Opening up the dialogue with other Westchase area residents, about education, is something we are fortunate to be able to do in a virtual environment.

Whether or not you are in school or have children in school, facets of education at both the macro and micro levels impact your life.  Not all of our area’s residents are going to agree on whether or not a greater percentage of property taxes ought to go to our schools or whether or not there should be efforts to rezone Westchase area schools.

What is important is that we have the conversations. 

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While the role of teacher has been a part of my identity since the days when I taught the ABCs to stuffed animals lined-along-my-bedroom wall, I have been a licensed teacher for eight years. The act of teaching high school English has taught me a great deal about the human experience.

Experiencing a contemporary memoir with high school students is about much more than decoding words on the page.  Composing creative nonfiction vignettes goes much deeper than getting five paragraphs on the page.  A classroom community is a place that must be nurtured so that each the student-learners and teacher-learner feel safe being vulnerable as they immerse themselves in reading, writing, and speaking activities. 

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This past year has been a transitional one.  After years in the high school setting, I felt called to affect change at a larger scale.  In order to affect change in the field of education, one tends to need a mouthful of ABCs after their last name.  I am now a full-time instructor and doctoral student in the College of Education at the University of South Florida.  It is my awesome responsibility to prepare pre-service teachers.  While I am not preparing to be a physician and, hence, do not have life or death situations in my hands, I believe there are thousands of lives in my hands.

Through the men and women I prepare to enter the English language arts classroom, I am affecting the lives and literacy of Florida’s future leaders, professionals, and laypeople.  During this era of high-stakes testing, drastic budget cuts, and prescribed curricula, none of us can afford to turn our backs on education. 

Whether one is a student, teacher, parent, or “fill in the blank,” one likely has lingering questions, ideas for innovations, or need-to-be-aired frustrations about particular facets of the education enterprise.

Through this blog, I hope that we can engage in virtual conversations that may lead to real-world changes. 

Even when I have the alphabet soup after my name, I cannot advocate for education on my own.  I want to use my wisdom of practice to help answer your questions.  I want share your ideas with the proper professional peers.  I want to be your sounding board for frustrations (and, successes).  Westchase area residents, let’s blog for education.   

Want to get in touch with me contact me by e-mail at: tpayor@mail.usf.edu

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