My last year of college was a
year of testing. An example was,
September Experience, which consisted of time scheduled at a public school as
the year started. It was intended to
give a sense of the start-up activity, first hand. There was a varying amount of participation,
dependent on the supervising teachers.
It could be a reality check for the want-a-be teacher, though I hadn’t
heard of any one changing majors at this late date as a result of September
Experience. I think it would be better
to graduate and try teaching on a real assignment before making a decision like
that.
My September Experience had
been arranged with Custer County High School and the Vice Principal was to be
my supervisor. I was surprised the
automotive program would be the area I would observe with several short
visitations to academic classes. I
appreciated the opportunity to stay at home and work with Custer County High
School during these start-up days, but would have felt more at ease in the farm
shop. Maybe that was part of the
stratagem; to use an unfamiliar situation rather than a “home coming” type of
placement.
It felt odd to walk into the
initial meeting with teachers I had studied under just three years before. The meeting provided an opportunity for
introductions of new faculty and staff.
My reason for being there was also explained to everyone. I received a warm welcome for joining the
education community and a number of the faculty offered to meet with me if I
had questions. There were several new
faculty members, but none in the area I would be observing. The Principal covered changes in procedures
as well as a quick review of the first semester’s activities. This brought back memories of that first
semester I attended Custer County High School.
When all the general house keeping items had
been covered, the faculty, staff and I adjourned to department meetings. This was where details of the department’s
start-up were discussed, and I felt this was where my learning was taking
place. In an earlier meeting with my
supervisor, the Vice Principal, I was advised to keep a journal as the days of
my experience progressed. This as well
as several other evaluation pieces would be collected at the end of the
experience to constitute the evaluation of my September Experience,
Department meetings were used
to identify things that had to be done during the first week. I was assigned to help with an inventory of
tools and order missing or broken units.
The department chairman then went over my order and correlated it with
the subject matter to be covered and projected the enrollment in each
class. I was impressed by this procedure
and never suspected this type of detail planning took place before school
started. It made sense to be as ready as possible for the students when they
would arrive the next week. This type of
preparation filled the rest of the week providing an excellent opportunity to
get to know the department faculty.
The next week was the start
of first semester and students found their way to the automotive shop, ready and eager to
start class. The instructors were ready
to teach and school was on and operating in good spirit and excitement. The planning and preparation were essential
for a positive start.
I had opportunity to work
directly with some students in one class and corrected papers for another
instructor. One day I sat in on several
academic classes. It was interesting to
compare the varied types of classes and how the students reacted to the subject
matter. Before I realized it my
September experience was over. I had an
exit interview with my supervisor, answered an open-ended set of questions and
turned in my journal. Late in the day I
dropped by the auto shop and thanked the faculty for their tolerance in putting
up with me and answering my questions.
Several asked what my plans were.
Upon learning of my desire to teach some where in the state as close to
Miles City as possible, they indicated I should come back. They had plenty of work for me. That was good for my ego. I walked the familiar street back to Mom’s place.
*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.
No comments:
Post a Comment