By Tracey
I have a high school student who comes to my classroom and spends the day helping me out. She comes twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday. She's in my room all day, from the start of school at 8:40 to 2:00, sometimes 3:00. She's very kind and pleasant. Last week she changed the bulletin board paper out in the hall. She's in a program that matches students with mentors in careers they want to pursue. She came to me in September, asking if she could interview me about being a teacher. And before I knew it, she was showing up twice a week asking if she could stay and help. I'll admit, it's nice to have the help. I have her help me with logging in homework, filing papers, and organizing the classroom library. But, what is she really getting in return? Three fifths of a 9th grade education and some paper cuts? That's my worry.
I talked with her teacher. He came to my classroom to meet me and have me sign some papers. I needed to agree that I would serve as her "mentor", which according to him meant that I would give her work to do. But, my understanding of the word "mentor" isn't someone who gives a person work to do. That's an employer. A mentor is someone who guides and teaches you. I might serve as a great mentor to her, if I didn't already have 26 high needs students and too much on my plate. I shared my concern, telling her and her teacher that I'm not sure how valuable the learning will be from devoting so much time in my classroom. He told me not to worry, and to send her to other classrooms if I ran out of the things for her to do. She reiterated, saying that she's learning lots –my math lesson the other day taught her something she never understood about finding the greatest common factor and the least common multiple.
I think it's a wonderful idea to send young students out into the world to get a taste of what it's like in the field. I've heard about successful programs that do this, and treat it like a job. But, I question the way this plays out for students wanting to become teachers. I'm so loaded down with responsibilities, that I can't do a good job of teaching another student about what I do. And her work-study program doesn't expect me to. It feels much more like we're farming students out to places to get busy-work done we don't want to do ourselves at the expense of a good education. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. She is developing relationships with younger students and seeing fifth grade again from a new perspective. But ninth grade is an important year. I wonder how college-ready I would have been if I had spent 40% of it back in elementary school. What are your experiences with work study programs? Is this typical?
Kristin, I never for a moment thought of that. I talked with her teacher today and he confirmed it. Apparently, this HAS been a positive experience for her. He described how she behaved before becoming an intern in my class. She lacked confidence, direction, commitment, and follow through. I guess now she talks to him about students she’s seen and how responsible they behave, (or don’t behave.) He told me that now she’s decided she wants to be a heart surgeon. So, he’s looking for an internship for her in a hospital.
So… I guess I’m not sure. I think I’d still like to see a program such as this have greater expectations and clearer goals and outcomes. But, I might have been a little quick to judge. If she learns now at 9th grade what she wants to do and what she needs to do to get there, perhaps her next three years of high school will be more purposeful, focused, and productive. I certainly hope so, as we need all the heart surgeons/teachers we can get.
It seems odd that someone thinks that the best thing for her to do is help you with busy-work. Isn’t there a high school class somewhere that she should be attending? I have a high school girl helping me in my classroom, but she comes in afterschool, which is sometime around 2:30. Her purpose is clear: fulfilling our district’s volunteer requirments.
I agree with Mark that it doesn’t sound like they have clear objectives for what they want her to learn. Even student teachers have clearly outlined assignments and expectations for what they’re supposed to get out of student teaching.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help but feel like your 9th grader feels like she’s learning more from her time with you than she is in her own school, and I don’t find that hard to believe. She’s showing up, she’s completing tasks independently, and she’s seeing you deal effectively with young children. When I think of my own 9th grade year, which was a complete waste, all I learned to do was cut class without getting caught. I would have been lucky and well-taught to have spent two days a week helping an elementary teacher like you.
It sounds like their placement program is suffering from a purpose problem. I’ve had TAs who “help me” when they need to fill a hole in their schedule, but I never have enough to keep them busy. I did have a high school senior who was in a “Careers in Education” elective class who observed me on a regular basis for a semester, and I did put him to work, but he also had assignments akin to a student-teacher’s assignments such as example lessons, analyzing what I do, looking at student work, etc. AND, he was great with my kids…the right dispositions and demeanor…if he sticks with it in college, he’ll be teacher of the year someday. Sounds like the girl placed with you doesn’t have any observation-related assignments… sounds like they just needed a place for her.