Little did I know that I would quickly step into my sisters’ position. From being the observer, I became the person being questioned. And while I thought I was going to like all the questioning, it actually turned into something a bit frustrating.
Why can I do so much better than that?
I think most people's response is born from that they immediately associate teaching with it being a low-paying job. While there may be truth to that, just because it's a low paying job doesn't mean it's one that should be undervalued. I find it ironic, really.
Ironic that we're willing to pay $60,000 dollars a year for an education, and yet we find it ok to say that someone can "do better" than becoming one of the catalysts of this education.
So for my internship, I decided to put behind what I've heard and been told, and decided to dive into teaching with the hopes of understanding whether this is something I see myself doing in the future. For the past two weeks, I’ve been interning as a 5th grade teacher assistant with my own fifth grade teacher, Ms. Carolina Gayoso!
From everything I’ve experienced so far, the greatest struggle—and yet the part that I love the most—is the relationship that I am establishing with the kids. It’s a slow process, but I completely understand why. For them, suddenly having someone else in class to whom they can seek feedback and help from is not exactly easy, whereas for me, reaching out to the kids as their “teacher”, rather than another student is also hard because it's a different type of relationship. It’s one where I’ve learned from Ms. Caro that is a fine balance between being strict and having high expectations, to being understanding and creating an environment in which the kids look forward to coming to everyday .
During a planning meeting that I went to with Ms. Caro and Ms. Rita (another 5th grade teacher), Ms. Rita explained how every teacher has her own teaching style. While Ms. Rita focuses more on the emotional development of her students, I find that Ms. Caro focuses more on the development of the students’ skills; a day in either of there classes would probably be very different, but that’s something that I love. It means the teacher has autonomy, and is therefore able to create a class that she sees value in.
This next week is going to be hard. Hard in that I’m going to be faced with the challenge of actually leading the classroom, but harder in that I’m going to have to say bye to the class right when I started to get to know them. I’m going to miss hearing the Condor News in the morning, I’m going to miss telling Santiago to calm down so that he doesn’t trip on his way out, and most importantly, I’m going to miss the excitement of entering Ms. Caro’s room knowing what to expect, but at the same time not really knowing what's going to happen.