Having never been that popular or "cool" in high
school, my first day of class as a teacher's intern felt just as awkward now as
it did back then...more than eight years ago. I was still the same height, a
short 5 foot 4, and still pudgy if not more so. The only things different were
my attire (they tell us to dress as if for a job interview every day) and my
facial hair (still short considering my Asian heritage). To the naked eye, I
was just a fancier dressed high school student.
Entering my designated high school, I masked my anxiety
with an air of feigned professionalism. I chose to carry a padfolio instead of
a binder or backpack, and I think that helped my image quite a bit. I got my
bearings around the campus, introduced myself to the secretary and principal,
checked in, and found my mentor teacher. I observed only two classes that day,
two mundane classes from the student's perspective but from a potential
teacher's perspective, those two classes were quite eventful. Here is my
breakdown of what I observed.
My teacher:
She is a slightly older individual but you could never
tell with her character and spirit. A seasoned veteran of teaching for 15 years
in Texas, she is new to Las Vegas and is in her second year of teaching here.
She was the head of AP back then but is now teaching regular English. She is
cool and laid back and on the off hours shares the same dirty humor that I
enjoy so much. We coincidentally have the same favorite local cafe, so drinks
are on me next time. I could tell that I would learn so much from her and am
grateful for being paired with such an amazing mentor. She makes me excited to
learn and teach in her classroom.
My class:
My mentor teacher's class is also my class. I have to
teach this class a minimum of three times this semester. Fortunately, they are
all the same level - Regular English. Each class demographically consists of
mostly Hispanic, some African American, and one or two Caucasians and Asians
scattered throughout the five periods. In one class, there is a good deal of
special education students as well. Most of these students have not passed the
proficiency, and I noticed that most of them have difficulty in structured
writing and learning. In all, I would classify these students as
"at-risk". I am interested to see how a veteran teacher works with
these students.
My subject:
This senior year of English focuses on British Literature.
I just finished my two semesters worth of studying college-level Brit. Lit. so
the content is fresh in my mind. I jumped right into their reading of Beowulf
and was taken aback at how censored the reading is (Beowulf being quite
graphic) considering this is a Senior level class. No matter. I am intrigued as
to how this seemingly "outdated" work of writing will engage this
class of digital-aged students.
The rules:
So much has changed since I was in high school. Back then,
cutting edge technology in terms of mobile devices was the razor flip-phone.
Now, I see many students on their smartphones, earbuds in and listening to
whatever kids listen to nowadays and chatting away with their peers. I haven't
had the chance to observe other classes, but in my mentor teacher's class, this
went on relatively unchecked during lecture and activity. Perhaps this is part
of the culture now, that instead of opening up a dictionary, students will open
dictionary.com. We are teaching to the digital age so this observation was
probably to be expected but nonetheless still surprising to me. I will have to
see how this affects classroom management.
This is only a bit of what went through my mind on my
first day. I will have to keep tabs on all my observations and what I've
learned in order to incorporate that into skills and effectiveness as a
teacher. It is my hope that by sharing this, I will get some sort of feedback
from outside sources (you, the reader) on how I am doing as a
teacher-apprentice and what I can do to better myself as an educator.
