Lane Tech Summer Enrichment

Document Type

Article

Domestic/International

None

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

I found out about this summer enrichment program my high school does while in high school. I always wanted to take a class but had always had prior commitments during the summer. This was the first summer in a really long time where I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do to fill my time. Quickly I realized that I wanted to be productive but was late to the job and internship search. While scrambling one night looking for a teacher’s email on the school’s website, I found the pop up for students about the various class offerings. I decided to take a look to see what it is I would be the most interested in if I was still in high school and nothing in particular caught my eye, but then I noticed that a teacher that I had for a few years was teaching a course of her own and decided to reach out to see if she would be interested in having an assistant for class. She was delighted that I reached out because she is having student teaching assistants for the first time this academic year and thought it would be useful to see what it is like to work with a student helper, especially because she is such an independent teacher and does a lot on her own. Walking into this experience I was grappling with the idea of potentially bumping my Education major down to a minor and finding a secondary area of study to become proficient in and I thought I would try out language, just because I am the most sure about theater and being in the classroom that I figured I would try something new. I am so glad I did because now I know that I could never be a language teacher, especially on my own. I think because language classes are more of a requirement, despite having an element of election, in picking your language of study, it is harder coordinating levels because there is the confounding variable of varied interest in the subject and some people just struggle to learn language. I felt like I had a harder time thinking of activities and assignments that would be all encompassing and be easily translated to my students and their varied skillsets. I think there are very few experiences that could be more technically enriching for hopeful teachers than classroom times. Being able to operate in the classroom is one of my favorite things, I love knowing that I am actively helping students supplement their education. This experience helped me expand my skillset because I got to use a different approach to teaching that I have not taken due to only operating in Dance, Theater, and English educational spaces as a teaching assistant. One of the biggest things was language itself and making the split decision in deciding what language to respond in, especially depending on the language that your student speaks to you first. Whether that student is proficient/accelerated in the language of study but speaks to you in English do you ask them to repeat it in Spanish or is that reserved for the students who you know need more help when it comes to language learning and would benefit from extra practice on asking whether or not they can go to the bathroom. This experience really helped me sharpen my Spanish speaking skills. Oftentimes I feel like I speak incredibly colloquially at home with my family members because my grandparents are exclusively Spanish speakers. So being able to refine my Spanish in a bit more of a professional setting felt really meaningful. I feel like my brief time at Conn has helped add to my existing skill set. One of the biggest things I think that helped me was my involvement with the Enrich Mentor Program with Bennie Dover Jackson through the Holleran Center. Working on a weekly basis with middle schoolers is one of the hardest but most rewarding things I think I have ever done in my entire life. Middle school is such a tough time and knowing that I get to be someone that I wish I had to the students means a lot to me. If I could go back in time and change anything about this experience I think that I would reach out to a different faculty member at my high school first, and ask them about the possibility of assisting them. I think it would have been an excellent networking opportunity that went over my head in my rapid last minute search for a summer opportunity. The most important insight that I gained doing this experience was the fact that I cannot imagine myself being a foreign language teacher. I have the highest regard for all teachers but being able to experience what language teachers go through gives me an entirely new perspective and respect for that genre of teacher. I think that this experience came at the hardest time in my life, because the Friday before starting this job I was made aware that a family member that I love very dearly had passed away. I had big ideas but suddenly the idea of getting through the job felt like survival, but I took my feelings and really felt like I sublimated them. I am so glad I followed through and did the job anyway because I feel so much more connected to my culture and my family by proxy. But I learned a lot about myself and what my boundaries look like especially in a time of intense vulnerability. One of the most challenging parts that the teacher I worked with and I encountered was seating charts. Obviously it was a summer class but this was a life skill they were learning and not something that they were likely doing for fun, in tandem with that we did a lot of turn and talk exercises so we had about a 20 minute discussion after every class about what the next day’s seating chart would look like. Forming partners on the basis of will they be able to focus in this seat and will they help their partner get good practice. We would be nearly complete and then realize that the pair that we were left with would not have been a productive one so we would have to switch things around even further for another 10 minutes. I have a pretty firm grasp on the happenings of my high school so I am no stranger to getting tips from my teachers about what the best course of action for me is, especially because I am incredibly vocal about wanting to be a teacher.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.