JOURNAL 1
Teaching: An Interesting Experience
This is my first journal for my KCC service learning project. I have chosen to help teach and tutor students at McKinley High School's Marine Science and Biology classes. My service learning supervisor is Mr. Dennis Santiago. Mr. Santiago was my marine science teacher when I was in high school. He was also my Directed Studies mentor. The Directed Studies program is sort of a research class that high schools kids can enroll in. It gives students credits for papering and participating in upcoming science fairs and symposiums. It was through this innovative program that I've chosen to go back and work with kids for my service learning project. I guess I never did finish my research on artificial photosynthesis, and this was a chance for me to find another student with the same dreams end goals. I wanted to show that special student what research was all about, and the experience you get just by realizing that you are at the cutting edge of knowledge. For me it was a thrill to find about new things and teach others, not the other way.
The day before I went to see Mr. Santiago about doing my service learning with his classes, I eagerly wrote out some stuff I thought would bring more life to his class. His class is great and all that. . .but I felt it needed something a little more fresh, a little more hands on, and a little more 1990-ish. I wrote down all these new ideas I had, including watering down my college level bio labs to a easy to understand format. I felt that high school students can work with college level bio labs, if they where explained properly. Einstein always said, "nothing is to complex in this world that can't be explained in a simple way." I was so excited. . .I had everything typed out and was ready to change the world.
The next day I went to talk to Mr. Santiago. Mr. Santiago was always a tough person to deal with. . .he always had such high expectations for everyone. (Thinking back about it, I guess this is one of the reasons why I did so well. Thank you Mr. Santiago.) When I told him that I would like to volunteer and help him tutor his students, he smiled and said, "only if it does not influence you to be a teacher. . .the pay sucks. . .I want you to be a doctor. . .a MD." Well I guess that was a yes. Anyways he did not hold back even for a second, he immediately gave me a book and said he wanted me to be here tomorrow and teach his 5th period. That lesson was about identifying different types of fishes based on external anatomy features. He gave me some books, a teachers guide, worksheets, encyclopedias, national geographic magazines, worksheets, diagrams and three different text books that teach it three different ways. Then he said, "this is not too much for you right? I'm not dropping the bomb on you, am I?" I smiled and said, "No Sir.... I won't let you down." (ya. . .right) It hit me like a rock, but I held it in, hiding any body language and facial expression. With my straight poker face that I practice every Saturday with the boys on the poker table, I said with a calm voice, "Okay, no problem." Ha ha ha... who was I kidding?
With only 18 hours to go and not a minute more, I quickly hit the library and drowned myself in work and panic. At about 2 hours later at the library and after 3 Sports Illustrated magazines and the 1997 Swimsuit Edition things started to fall into place . I had three possible diagrams that I was going to combine to make a diagram custom fitted to my lesson plan. Furthermore, I had an outline and most importantly I had a plan. My plan was very simple. . . water down everything till I only have what was important. I'd figured the less b.s. they have to listen to, the better my chance of me not putting them to sleep. I reasoned to myself that if I could explain to them everything in a way that they can all understand and keep the mood positive. . .I'd might just pull it off. I was a man with a mission. I drew, outlined and photocopied into the night.
The next day I sat through my human anatomy with only one thing going through my mind. . .the way we tortured our substitute teachers when I was in high school. Ironic isn't it. I guess what goes around, does come around. When I got to McKinley high school all I could do was go over my lecture over and over again in my head. I had all sort of diagrams on the board and looked like a complete rookie. Then the clock hit one and. . .they came. They all looked at me wide-eyed puzzled, probably trying to wonder who I was. When the bell rang, Mr. Santiago introduced me and I just started lecturing. It all came out of me naturally. Can you believe it I opened my lecture with a joke. . .and the all laughed at my joke. I was funny. I was actually funny. Well, the lecture went very smoothly. After a few minutes, I relaxed and it was like just talking to a single person. I was not even lecturing, it was more like interacting with them. Now that I looked back at that moment. . .they really are a bright bunch of kids. After that first lesson teaching was simple. After a while I didn't even have outlines or diagrams, I just kept a sheet of ideas in front of me so I would not rumble of on other stuff that their questions bring up. I started to love teaching. I even referred them as my kids in my conversations with my friends. It was always my kids this and my kids that.
Everything was not always smooth. As I taught more I discovered about other things that make teaching a profession to be reckoned with. I'm still working on some of these problems. One good example that I could never figure out is grading. I could easily grade all their papers on a percentage scale, but then when I think about it. . .it just didn't seem fair. There seem to be so many different circumstances that I have to take in to consideration. Just in my class alone, with (25) kids: their where those that didn't want to learn, those that had problems with English, those with a short attention span, and finally those that hardly came to class at all. It was because of my awareness of these different circumstances that I made it a point to be more individualized. I gave extra credit and even gave answers to some kids to push them along. I never did find a way to grade them. . .but on the other hand neither did Mr. Santiage in his 20 years of teaching. This grading policy thing was not the only thing that bothered me. There was also behavior problems that I had to deal with. I remember once I had to stop a girl from beating up her boyfriend when he was going to break up with her in the middle of my lecture. Hey. . .this was not in my service learning job description. Sometime I'm just so fed up with how these kids act. Their stupid attitudes and lack of respect really irk me. I guess being in a college setting, I'm use to having everyone exercise some sort of respect for the instructor and a whole lot of professionalism. Sometime I think their parents should be more strict at them at home or something. But, despite all of their mistakes, I love them. . I love m bunch of kids.