All posts by Sara Y Hemstock

The most “dangerous” profession……..A middle school teacher

Creating Classroom Community, Urban Adolescents

“You go home exhausted, wondering why you ever chose teaching as a career. The next day you’re back in the classroom and you’re soaring. You feel that you could teach forever. Teaching middle schoolers is not an easy trip, but the ride is exhilarating.”-Brown & Knowles (2007). You want to be What?

I think the authors when they wrote this quote had me in mind because it perfectly describes how I have been feeling since I started student teaching Spanish to 6th graders and working in a middle school for the first time ever. Teaching middle schoolers is not and I mean is not an easy job. I always thought I was never cut out to be a middle school teacher because as this chapter already mentioned teenagers between the ages 12-14 are impossible to deal with in the classroom. I totally remember being at that growing pain stage of adolescence and it was rough as a student so I couldn’t possibly imagine going through that as a teacher.

However, since September I have grown to love my status as a middle school Spanish teacher because I can see these students are most vulnerable and need that unconditional support from adults to help guide them through the daily ups and downs of adolescence. I am that person who is willing to listen and not make quick judgements before everything is laid out on the table, so to speak. I think I could be that advocate for these teenagers and it is unfortunate how so many teachers aren’t willing to take on this type of  position nor trained to deal with these types of situations.

At the end of Brown & Knowles’ chapter, they posed 3 questions: What questions or concerns do you have about young adolescents or the structure of the middle school?; What questions or concerns do you have about being a middle school teacher?; What do you think is the most important thing a middle school student can do or learn in school?

I guess to answer the last question which is supposedly the basis of your teaching philosophy is to have middle schoolers learn and understand that they aren’t alone and that they shouldn’t be afraid to come to me with any questions they may have whether it is related to Spanish or not. I worry more for the emotional intelligence in my middle schoolers and instilling empathy more so than them understanding and getting the content because it goes back to that simple statement where if a teacher isn’t emotionally invested in the well-being of the student, then they can forget about trying to get the student to learn because what matters most to students is seeing and witnessing that unconditional support from their teachers.

“This is your brain on drugs.”

Adolescent Brain, Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond, Urban Adolescents

“In the school settings, teenagers draw conclusions about alcohol and drug abuse from what they see and hear from their friends, classmates, and teachers.” -Philip (2006) This is your brain on….:Understanding and curbing adolescent substance abuse.

When I read the blurb on the Education Connection in this chapter of Philip’s, I couldn’t help but think back to my middle and high school years in health class. Yes, I had the stereotypical health class where we talked about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, abusive relationships, teen pregnancy, and amongst other cliché topics health teachers are forced to talk about with adolescents. But, what striked me the most was the quote on how “teenagers believe that there has always been an association between fried eggs and your brain!” which is entirely true because I remember that’s how the topic for open discussion on drug abuse began in class. Of course, this didn’t do anything to make my fellow classmates think twice about the dangers of becoming into contact with drugs.

I grew up in a typical mostly white middle class suburban town where I could say drugs weren’t “openly visible,” but however some of my classmates did have some crazy parties where there was obviously underage drinking ongoing as well as the usage of marijuana and perhaps other types of ilicit drugs. Once in awhile, these parties would be busted by the local police and the host of the party just got a slap on the wrist for his/her wrongdoings. It wasn’t until after I graduate in 2009 that I started to hear how my town was slowly becoming a commonplace for known heroin users where at least 3 of my classmates have overdosed and died from the disease. What I am trying to say is: these “scare tactics” that the author mentioned definitely don’t work. Teenagers will always be walking around with the mentality that they are invincible and will never succumb to the drug like Brian did with cocaine in this chapter, but there needs to be “expections and penalities regarding use by students, they help reinforce the fact that underage drug use is not an acceptable form of behavior” (Philip, 2006).

A Not So Happily Ever After

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality, Urban Adolescents

“…..10 participants ages 14-19….I would walk with the girls to the subway. I would hear snippets of their conversations with each other about their home lives…..I couldn’t imagine how these giggly high school girls could possibly transition to be someone’s wife once they left the playful space of our girls’ group.” -Sauti Yetu, A Closer Look at Forced and Early Marriage in African Immigrant Communities in NYC.

This quote definitely made an impression on me as well as being open and honest about the harsh and taboo truths of forced and early marriage. I, like this author, could never fathom the possibility of a teenager, let alone in the United States, be already married before finishing high school. It is one of those topics that is heavily shrouded and not discussed at all within American society. At first, I couldn’t believe that forced and early marriage even existed in the United States while reading this report because the only time I ever actually heard about this being a problem was in Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia.

While reading this report, I found it amusing how many of the newly or recently arrived immigrants from Africa would do anything to avoid being forced into an early marriage and some were even willing to go through the possibility of being homeless just to avoid being married so young. However, there is a very fine line between being loyal and disobeying your family’s own wishes to pursuing what you believe is being successful-an education. I think that is the hardest thing about being a woman is women are always constantly pressured and questioned as to when they are getting married or when are they going to start having kids. I know I’ve encountered these questions more frequently since I’ve turned 26. Like Mariama and the many other girls who participated in this study,  I want to finish my studies first before settling down and having a family. I want and strive to be an educated woman because I’ve noticed women in my family or friends that I went to high school with have stopped going to school or pursue a full fledge career since they got married.

Why don’t men feel the pressure or need to give up their goals for to settle down to marry just like women? It’s an uphill battle, but it is something that needs to be address and dealt with in schools.

Girls Can Be Their Own Worst Enemy

Urban Adolescents

“For example, Gilligan has found that the pressures of trying to succeed academically by speaking up, but also trying to be attractive to boys by staying quiet, can cause girls to silence themselves in school.”-Michelle Galley

This quote stuck with me after I finished reading Michelle Galley’s chapter on “Who am I as a learner?” Would Girls and Boys Tend to Answer Differently?  simply because this has been a common reccurence at the school where I student teach. I’ve noticed how quiet and recluse the girls are in the 7th and 8th grades, but particularly more so in 7th grade Spanish where the girls are being surrounded by loud and rowdy boys. My CT has tried to encourage and give plenty of opportunties for the girls to participate, but they seem to not be interested or are afraid of “showing off their talents” and being marked as “unattractive” to the boys.

I know I can relate to this quote as well because I did something similar when I was in 9th grade. I had a major crush on one of the football players in my English class and I tried so hard for him to notice me, but at the same time I didn’t want to come across as smart. So, I remained quiet and didn’t speak out as much because I was hoping that I would attract my crush into liking me back, of course, it completely backfired. However, I slowly realized that by the time I reached university, guys don’t really want to be with a girl who “acts stupid,” but wants a girl who is smart, confident, and assertive. I wished I had known this earlier when I was back in high school so I didn’t have to waste my time pining over a guy who never once noticed/looked at me, but on the other hand, I don’t think my 16 year old self would’ve listened to that piece of advice either.

Since I have been student teaching, I have come across many of the girls in 7th and 8th grade who have low-esteems and poor images of themselves academically. One 8th grade girl recently has accepted the title of being called an airhead amongst her classmates. I was completely shocked that this particular 8th grader would even accept this term as her label because 1. she is popular and 2. I don’t consider her an airhead at all, but someone who is a good student/person when she wants to be. So, how can we as educators prevent our students, particularly adolescent girls between the ages of 13-16, in thinking that they can’t be smart in order to attract the opposite sex?

The New Face of Education

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“[Some] teachers treat us well and watch out for our safety. When I came here, I didn’t speak English and I didn’t know how things were here. But a teacher helped me out and would explain things to me in Spanish.” -Dario

This quote resonated with me about my experience as an English teacher in Madrid, Spain for 3 years. I had the privilege to work with primarily immigrant students in Madrid’s bustling metropolis of immigrants from Latin America, China, Morocco and the Phillipines. I definitely noticed and received a different response from the newly arrived immigrants in comparison to the native Spaniards when it came to learning English. The Spanish children felt that the only way to succeed and have any kind of future was to learn English whereas some immigrants in particular from Latin Americans had quite a different opinion and only looked at learning English as a way to pass the course and wait until they were 16 to officially drop out of school.

I came into contact with one particular 5th grader from Bolivia named Triana who newly arrived to Madrid to be reunited with her mother after being apart since she was 5 years old. Unfortunately, as it was already mentioned in Suárez-Orozco, Baolian Qin, and Fruja Amthor’s article “Adolescents from Immigrant Families: Relationship and Adaption in School,” Triana was the lucky one out of her sister to be chosen due to a life-threatening illness where it put her health in jeopardy and the daunting task on her mother to get her daughter out of Bolivia to receive the proper medical attention. This also put a strain on Triana and her mother’s relationship because Triana no longer recognized her mother as a mother, but just someone who gave birth to her and left her and her sister behind in their village in Bolivia with family members.

When Triana arrived to Madrid she was in 5th grade, even though, she should’ve been in 6th grade, but because of her Spanish literacy skills being below grade level the school put her a year behind. When I met her for tutoring in English, she had a low self-esteem and absolutely no motivation to learn especially English. She felt she was cast as an outsider in the classroom because her teacher barely noticed her or even encouraged her to participate. However, when I started working with Triana on her English afterschool, she  began to want to learn English with me only and no one else because she realized I value her as a person and didn’t ignore her.

I think that is one of the hardest things as teachers is putting aside the academic content for a second and just focus on students’ well-being like in Triana’s case. If teachers were willing to get to know their immigrant students’ background a little bit more, then it would make for a more enriching classroom environment for students, teachers, and newly arrived immigrants as well as making everyone feel included. In the end, isn’t that what teaching is all about? Making interpersonal connections and understanding different points of views from each other.