It’s now been roughly 8 months since I started working for the Anaheim Family YMCA, and while there are some rather “challenging” days, I feel like my time there has ultimately proven itself beneficial to me in the long run.
After subbing for a month dealing with Middle School students at Brookhurst Junior High, I got transferred permanently to Loara High School, where I would work all the way up to January under the leadership of Jonathan Abbas. The job was a great one – essentially involving a very limited amount of tutoring intermersed with a great deal of socializing. If I didn’t end up socializing with friends on a certain day, it’s mostly because I fulfilled my quota of social interaction at Loara High School. While there, I would mentor students by getting to know them, playing board games with them, and mostly allowing them to confide in me their personal problems. And though many of them remain unresolved, I had the opportunity to improve my communication skills while at the same time gauging the values of the high school students I will inevitably end up teaching in the future. I also was involved in an after-school class being an aide for a U.S. History teacher, who was very lenient on his students. Two kids ended up missing 8 of his classes and thus made up their hours with me. I used their time preciously by getting to know them, making them aware that their decisions in life can dramatically impact their future (one of them was pregnant, but assumed the ultimate responsibility of raising the child while simultaneously in high school). They were Mexican and Black and subsequently made me a friendship bracelet with a brown and black bead on it, despite my initial protests. I also encountered a variety of students who ended up calling me “Uncle John”, and even confided in me their daily gossip and boy problems. In the end my time at Loara was well spent as I had social interactions with high school students I wouldn’t have had similar interactions with in my days at Rancho Alamitos.
And then I was transferred to Katella, not by my personal decision by any means. The supervisor that interviewed me requested me move to Katella high school, mostly because she thought I was a good fit for the tutoring department there. When pressure came from my boss’s supervisor, Jonathan Abbas had no choice but to transfer me to the reigns of a newer superior, Caitlyn Fry. The first week was most definitely a challenge. Going into a new school in the middle of the year presents itself a variety of a challenges, with mostly me having to play catch-up in getting to know the students that showed up there. I also grew a bit nostalgic as I missed what the Loara students were doing as I entered new terrain that week. And though I was quite sad at first, by the end of the week my spirits were enlightened when a student remembered my name and said “Of course I wouldn’t forget you.” From this point on we have a rather jovial relationship as we always say “have a nice life” to one another when budding goodbye. While at Katella I got placed in an after-school U.S History class. I can see firsthand from my interactions with the teacher her mistakes in teaching I hope never to repeat. Instead of adapting her lesson plans to the needs of her students, it seems like she is expecting them to make a change in their study habits. While this is an important skill for them to eventually learn, I feel that she needs to mix up her teaching mechanisms (she solely does lectures, vocabulary, tests, and movies). I also run detention for two days a week while I’m there. Though it was a bit shaky at first, I am learning firsthand how to deal with classroom management. This is especially relevant when rebellious kids start coming into the room and start dancing on tables. Though I was a bit reluctant to be mean at first, I eventually calmly managed the classroom by telling them they needed to leave otherwise there would be serious repercussions. In the end I used detention and tutoring to my benefit by developing close professional yet personal relationships with the students. Even though some of them initially came to detention or tutoring because they had to, over time they liked me well enough to come back and visit voluntarily. In the end, although I miss the students at Loara, I am starting to bond more and more with the kids at Katella, while learning not only the mistakes to avoid in my future teaching experience, but how to effectively use classroom management techniques to maintain order and control. These skills will ultimately use for my professional development in my future experiences in life.
YAY!