“ w e c r a f t o u r l e s s o n s t h o u g h t f u l ly, b l e n d i n g n e w ly - a c q u i r e d s k i l l s w i t h o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r c r e at i v i t y, g i v i n g s t uden t s t he chance to grow and t r y t h i n g s o u t i n a s a f e e n v i r o n m e n t .” — Jill Hanson Dash, Middle School English Teacher
AT LEAST, THAT’S WHAT IT SEEMS like from where I’m sitting, at my teacher desk in my classroom, or at a table in the faculty lounge. But does the school day look the same on the other side of that teacher desk, or outside of the faculty lounge doors? This past school year, Assistant Head of Middle School (now Acting Head of Middle School) Elizabeth Mawn Scott gave the teachers an opportunity to find out. We were asked to choose an individual student to shadow, and set specific goals for the day. We could be as involved in the school day as the two of us saw fit. I SELECTED MY STUDENT for a number of reasons, and settled on a Day 3 in the six-day rotation calendar because his schedule included the challenge of two back-to-back double blocks. Our schedule for the day was: 90 minutes of Science, a 10-minute break, 90 minutes of Spanish, lunch (including an a cappella rehearsal), History, Student Service, and finally Strings. My main goals going into the day were to find out about homework and down time, but my take-aways from the day ended up being tangential to these goals. By lunchtime, I was over-stimulated yet strangely sluggish, feeling cranial fatigue, terrified at being called upon and not knowing the answer, and starving. How do the students do this every day? I still wonder. UNCHARACTERISTIC OF my own former Middle School self, I went into the day as an unprepared student. On one level, this was totally fine because I
wasn’t really a student. On another level, this caused me great anxiety. I feared my teachers’ reprobation. I steeled myself for the gut-twisting sensation of not knowing what was going on. I completed a lab on levers, having no idea what GPE stood for, or what it meant to “zero” a scale. I took a unit test on reflexive verbs, in Spanish, a language I only marginally studied as a preteen. I had nothing invested in the grade or score, but I wanted to do my best nonetheless. I watched students in History class prepare for a debate on Progressive figures of the early 1900s, wishing I had the knowledge to join them and actually engage. By the end of the day – Strings class – I was over my fears and instead feeling sorry that I didn’t have a way to participate. It looked like a lot of fun! FOR A STUDENT who is as lost as I felt that day, what are some of the things standing in the way of coming to class prepared? What keeps a student from raising his or her hand when confused? And how do we let those students know that struggling with homework is okay, and that trying something new and not being immediately good at it is also okay? These are questions I will need to continue pondering well into the school year. THE DAY WAS NOT all fog and hunger pains, though. The added bonus of being a student was getting to see my illustrious colleagues in action. I was struck by how seamlessly science teacher Andrew Harris incorporated the week’s topic into a real-world, humorous example about rollercoasters, and how fun Emma
D’Alessandro’s Spanish class was, with students vying for puntos for using everyday Spanish. Eleni Pantages’ chorus practice during lunch was clearly an oasis for her students, who arrived eager to work on their a cappella rendition of “The Best Day of My Life.” Susan Strumpf organized a challenging debate that cloaked critical thinking skills in the excitement of competition, and Dr. Kristin Herkstroeter and the other music teachers conducted their students with grace and patience. I would count myself lucky to be in their classes every day. ANOTHER POSITIVE, yet unexpected take-away from that day was seeing my other students in different arenas, and feeling completely welcomed into their space. I saw students whom I knew as quiet being participatory, and my more outgoing students hanging back a little. It was just delightful to sit among them and watch them engage and interact. It is so easy to think of my students as being mine, and just seeing them in different learning environments was enough of a reminder that their day does not begin and end with my class. THE DAY LEFT ME with the sense that most of our students truly know how to be students – perhaps at times to the detriment of their ability to remain simply children. Their school day is taxing simply due to the schedule, and the task of keeping them stimulated but not fatigued, engaged and not overwhelmed, is a challenge I know I plan to keep at the forefront of my mind in the years to come. FALL
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