Teacher, students and great literature

I stood in front of the classroom, my stomach tight and lips thin. The desks were in perfect alignment, the syllabi ready to hand out to students and pencils were sharpened.

I was ready for my students.

The days before, I had made a list of everything that needed to be done. I now had a website complete with the course requirements, had created a calendar for both the Russian and English classes and uploaded audio links for Russian I students on the website.

The first day was a success. The first few weeks were a success. But I felt like I was drowning by week four. I was grading papers, writing quizzes, Xeroxing assignments and creating PowerPoint presentations. On several occasions, I’d listen to the Wasilla High School football games from my classroom, just so I could keep up with all the grading.

I am a first-year teacher.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I’m a first-year teacher with 16 years of experience. This is my first year back after a four-year hiatus as the Mat-Su Education Association President. I had forgotten how stressful it can be to an educator in today’s community. Throughout the past four years, colleagues had explained how tweaks to the schedule, assessments and curriculum had affected the community as a whole, and especially our students.

Four years ago classes were smaller, there were fewer class periods throughout the day and technology was not as vital as it is in the classroom now. But that is not our current classroom. This year I taught my students in my Russian I class how to install a Cyrillic keyboard so that they can text and email in Russian. Other students have created their own videos on YouTube for class projects. We keep connected via Edmodo, a website like Facebook, but education friendly. Students and their parents in my classes have a conduit to their classmates and me whenever they want. And they use it!

And what about those teachers new to the profession?

My teaching career began in Solon, Iowa, back in 1996. I hand-wrote my assignments for Russian classes. When I moved up to Alaska the next year, there was always some glitch installing fonts so that students and I could type in Russian. What a world of difference from then to now. A new teacher today must be able to navigate between learning a new curriculum and infusing it with the technology. And there is so much technology in the classroom.

This week my students were assessed on the Measures of Academic Progress. We spent several days out of the classroom in a computer lab. Although I’m not opposed with assessing students, I am concerned about the time in front of technology where there is little real interaction between the students and teacher. Technology is merely a tool.

I look forward to spending quality time with my students next week. We will begin to read “To Kill A Mockingbird” and getting back to the basics — a teacher, students and a great piece of literature. As we discuss themes, characterization, historical context and setting, we will learn together. This is what makes a successful week. We learn from each other and shift our current perspective so that we can continue learning and growing as individuals.

Jill Showman is an English and Russian teacher at Wasilla High School. She has taught for 17 years.