Rodney Robinson
Virgie Binford Education Center
Richmond, VA USA
"The reason I teach is to raise up and take care of the underprivileged and underserved students of America."
Career Roadmap
Rodney's work combines: Education, Government, and Teaching / Mentoring
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If you want to become a teacher, go into it honestly as yourself. Be honest with your students and be yourself. Students deserve honesty. They also connect best with the teachers who are completely themselves.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
History, General
Virginia State University
Graduate Degree
Educational Administration and Supervision
Virginia Commonwealth University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
Growing up, I was inspired by my mother, who was always giving back and engaging with the community.
2.
Being brought up in a rural school system, I struggled with culturally outdated lessons and racial discrimination—that experience made me decide to become a teacher and help students like me.
3.
After high school, I went to Virginia State University, which provided the culturally affirming education I needed in order to build up my confidence.
4.
After a little bit of a struggle through my first couple of years as a teacher, I started teaching at Armstrong High School in Richmond, Virginia.
5.
Armstrong High School was racially and economically segregated from the rest of the city, but I loved teaching at the school and working with that population.
6.
After 12 years, I was feeling some burnout with teaching—I still wanted to teach and work with the same population, but I also needed some sort of change.
7.
A friend of mine had become the principal at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, so I decided to join them and teach at the detention center—I went from teaching 1,200 kids to 60 kids.
8.
I’ve adopted a collaborative teaching style and am able to give my students the attention they need to grow—my efforts were recognized nationally when I was named 2019 National Teacher of the Year!
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Peers:
Teaching is not for you.
How I responded:
I was actually fired during my third year of teaching. The principal told me he didn't think education and teaching were a good fit for me. Fortunately, another principal picked me up and taught me the skills I was lacking so that I could become the teacher my students need and deserve.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
Growing up going to a rural school system was pretty traumatic between culturally outdated teaching and outright racial discrimination. Because of my experience, I made the decision to become a teacher that would help students like me.