I have always appreciated the honesty of children and young adults. My student teaching experience this past spring allowed me to interact with some honest 10th and 11th graders on a daily basis. I don’t know whether it was my close proximity in age or the students being aware that I was not their “real teacher”, but they were very transparent in our lessons and conversations. I personally appreciated their transparency and used it as a method of establishing relationships and teaching lessons to benefit the students beyond the classroom.
Spring semester at this particular school site is structured around state testing, final projects and final exams. It is an interesting time to begin a student teaching assignment because students are accustomed to the way things have been in their classroom, but once the students and I became familiar with one another instruction ran smoothly.
Early on these students shared their desire to work in groups and use technology. As a fan of the Sociocultural Theory I was all for the idea.
So I setup the student’s final project to include a significant amount of group research and reflective work. The students were given class time to discuss major themes, research details and find supporting evidence for their final articles. The students expressed their appreciation for the way I broke the content down, my willingness to help each student individually and to allow them to work in small groups. They also openly, yet respectfully, expressed their dislike for the challenging nature of the final project. One statement that I will never forget was “Mrs. Nester I can do it, but it’s just like… it makes me have to think too much”. Rather than ignore the comment I used it as a learning opportunity focused on the value of questioning what we hear, forming individual thoughts and completing challenging tasks.
It is easy to get caught up in daily assignments, meeting state standards and testing, but it is also important to educate students holistically. Young adults need to know how the assignments they are completing will contribute to their lives outside of the classroom. Considering students’ interest, setting challenging, yet achievable tasks and helping students to see the bigger picture contributed to students completing a quality final project that they could be proud of.
Saletha is enrolled in the MAT@USC with plans to become a teacher in California where she aspires to teach after graduation.
