Megan O'Malley: Making Spaces to Grow

Spending time with her mother who taught at an elementary school inspired Megan O’Malley to later become a teacher herself.

I did not plan to work in a school. As a child, I played soccer, sang in the choir, and tried to keep up with my academically excellent older sister. I went to school, but I had my sights on other things.

My mother was a teacher. For a time, I would walk to her classroom when I finished school. I would help her reset the space or prepare for a new project. She crafted a space with warmth and care, a space rich with information to help students connect with their world, with each other, and with a world outside what they knew.

On days when I helped in her room, it amazed me how she knew each student. There was constant motion with twenty second grade students and my mother appearing as a conductor trying to coordinate focus on a single, shared song.

My mom cultivated the most extraordinary library in her room. She knew that each book was an opportunity, an entry into a new way of thinking or a new feeling about yourself and the world.

When I was floating in a time of transition, my mother nudged me. Go be a substitute teacher. It’s flexible. There’s lots of classrooms who need someone. Go be a sub for now.

On my first day, I stepped into a dingy portable trailer on a high school campus. These barely awake ninth graders, mostly boys, dragged themselves into the room. The assistant in the classroom brimmed with optimism and warmth. She knew who would share more with an invitation to add and who to let be with a one word response. I was not able to do what she did for those students, yet I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to be better because it was exciting to be there watching as someone else got better, too.

I did not plan to work in a school. Now in my seventeenth year, I am still humbled and inspired seeing how all these amazing people build community in classrooms, school offices, and playgrounds. It is hard work to make space for each other. I am not always as patient as I could be. I still have more to learn. Yet every day holds an opportunity to feel inspired, to inspire someone else with a discovery that they, too, could make a difference. Everyday is a chance to step forward together.

With a Perspective, I’m Megan O’Malley.

Megan O’Malley is a Bay Area native who works in the East Bay. She is passionate about public education, the arts, and enjoying California’s many green spaces.