I am currently conducting my student teaching work at Del Norte High School, which is part of the Poway Unified School District. However, this is not my first experience with Del Norte. Last school year I had the opportunity and privilege of substitute teaching at Del Norte, during which time I was able to establish a rapport with students and faculty. I feel delighted and very fortunate for the opportunity to return to Del Norte and to work along aside teachers whom I consider great mentors.
Del Norte High School was established in 2009, at which time it only accommodated grade levels 9 and 10, and grades 11 and 12 were recently incorporated in the last two to three years. Del Norte was the fifth high school to be opened in the Poway Unified School District, and while the course work offered is very similar to other Poway Unified high schools, it is also very unique in that it offers a trimester schedule. As Del Norte high school is very new, it comes equipped with state-of-the-art technology that will enable it to adapt to new means of communication as they emerge. Del Norte high school is home to 1,800 students with a senior class of 465 students, and the school’s population is projected to surpass 2,000 students within the next few years.
Del Norte’s homepage describes its demographic makeup as roughly 50% Caucasian, 25% Asian, 1% Filipino, 1% Hispanic, and 1% Black. However, I have personally taught students at Del Norte who come from a variety of other countries, and I often hear these students speaking their native languages to each other. Some of the other ethnicities and languages I have come across at Del Norte are Egyptian (Arabic), Pakistani (Urdu), Russian (Russian), Turkey (Turkish), Saudia Arabian (Arabic), Iranian (Farsi), Italian (Italian), Spaniard (Spanish), Mexican (Spanish), Indian (Punjabi, Tamil, and Hindi), Japanese (Japanese), Vietnamese (Vietnamese), and Hong Kong (Cantonese).
Del Norte’s 2013 school year runs from Aug 21 to Jun 12; however, my first day of student teaching (observation) began last Thursday, Sep 5. My cooperating teacher is the head of the language department, and as he was conducting observations of other teachers last week, he requested that I begin my student teaching observations by helping out in the Chinese classroom and in the other Spanish classrooms. I have actually substitute taught for most of the teachers in the language department, and they welcomed me back into their classrooms with open arms. It was also very nice to see many familiar student faces who also welcomed me back to their classrooms.
As I observed the other five foreign language teachers last week (I observed a different teacher each period), I roved from table to table to help the students during classroom activities. Each teacher taught and engaged students in their own unique way. I was extremely impressed with the amount of Spanish and Chinese that the teachers spoke during lower level Spanish and Chinese classes. The lower-level Spanish teachers actually spoke Spanish roughly 90% of the time, and the students were very engaged in the lesson. As the teacher would ask questions in Spanish, the students would eagerly raise their hands in anticipation to participate during class. This impressed me because my first Spanish teacher (when I was in eighth grade) spoke Spanish maybe 10% of the time, and classroom engagement was very low. The level 1 Chinese class was also very impressive. As the teacher told stories in Chinese, the students were also very engaged and would promptly respond to the teacher’s questions. All of the teachers I observed implemented effective scaffolding techniques and stayed within the students’ linguistic zone of proximal development. I am so thrilled to be at Del Norte among such competent teachers who have displayed such a great willingness to take me under their wing and teach me the tricks of the trade!
However, not all students seem to be grasping classroom material with ease. Today, for example, I focused on my cooperating teacher’s upper-intermediate Spanish classes, during which time I also roved from table to table and helped students with classroom activities and assignments. As I identified students who seemed to be struggling, I would spend more time with them, encourage them, and make a special effort to establish rapport with them. One student, in particular, seemed somewhat distracted and was struggling with the material. I later learned that his father recently passed away, and this was having a direct impact on his classroom presence. I hope I can be a positive, uplifting influence in this particular student's life during our time together.
Today I was also able to sit down with my cooperating teacher and discuss how we envision my student teaching schedule to go for the remainder of our time together. We agreed that I will eventually take over his Spanish 6 class, period 3, which is an intermediate Spanish class that is comprised of mainly sophomores and juniors. There are roughly 35 students in this class, only one of which is a native Spanish speaker. And while the majority of the students are Caucasian, there is also ethnic representation from several other groups, including Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindi, African-American, and Korean.
Lastly, this week I also helped out several teachers with grading papers, and the impression I have gotten is that grading papers in and of itself could be a full-time job! My cooperating teacher has been teaching me about how he designs tests as well as how he manages his own grading system, which I have found extremely helpful and useful.
I am highly looking forward to learning and growing throughout my time at Del Norte as a student teacher. At the same time, however, I feel very vulnerable to begin teaching in front of teachers whom I consider to be masters of the trade. I have discussed this with some of the teachers, and they have assured me that we are on the same team, and that they felt the same way when they went through student teaching. Knowing that my cooperating teacher as well as the other teachers in the department are rooting for my success will be a very powerful and motivating factor for me as I begin developing lesson plans and teaching class.
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