A Glimpse into the Teaching Life Immersive: part 2

At the end of SLOCA High School’s winter and spring terms, students are “immersed” into a short-term elective course. These Immersive courses include a wide range of options: from Textile Art, Film Studies, and CAD/3D Printing, to Marine Biology, The World of Tolkien, and Psychology (among many more!). This past winter immersive included a course called “The Teaching Life,” in which students who have an interest in working with young children and/or education have the opportunity to be mentored by our Grammar & Middle School Director or Early Education Director, as well as a classroom teacher. They are essentially folded into the world of one of our highly qualified SLOCA teachers to participate in the daily routine of a classroom. 

This short series of blog posts, authored by “The Teaching Life” students, gives us a glimpse into their experiences and takeaways from this incredible immersive. See the first installment here; today we present a post from the main campus immersive by Hannah Bilicska, and another by Megan Jackson, who spent her immersive on our Little Wonders campus. Enjoy!

The Teaching Life at SLOCA

by Hannah Bilicska

I’ve always known I wanted to be a teacher. But I haven’t gotten the chance for any hands-on experience until my last winter immersive as a high school senior. And this experience has given me great, insightful experiences into the life of one of my dream jobs.

At the beginning of last semester, during the high school retreat to Koinonia camping grounds, we all got the spiel about the winter and spring immersives for the coming year. When I first heard all the amazing options, two classes first caught my attention: Military History, which I heard was quite literally fun and games (like Risk), and the Teaching Life. I spent the rest of the camping trip debating in my mind and with my friends on which intensive I should take for the winter. With it being my senior year, and having a mild case of senioritis, I knew that I didn’t want to take a class that would steal all the wind out of my sails for the final push through my last semester, but I also didn’t want to cruise through a class without a challenge (like SLOCA classes aren’t already enough of one). So, sorry Dr. Rocha, I chose to take a look into the teaching life. 

And, by the gods, did I get a look into the teaching life. Even with having such a short time with such amazing SLOCA teachers and students, I was able to see how much teachers play into a child’s learning experience. Not only did what I observed exceed all my expectations and preconceptions from what I already knew, but it gave me a better understanding of what it would be like to be a SLOCA teacher. So, let me give you a look at what I learned and witnessed during this class.

WEEK ONE: I arrived on SLOCA’s main campus, which I haven’t spent more than an hour’s worth at since middle school (a whopping six years ago, I feel so old now), not having a clue about what the next handful of days would entail. My classmates and I got a short tour and a wonderful hour-long description of the class from the amazing directors. After that, I had a little bit of a clue what to expect when I first entered the primary class I was assigned to. I was met with a dozen eager smiles and interested glances from the students (which happens when anyone enters the classroom honestly), and a grateful sigh from the teacher knowing that she had an extra set of hands to help her with kids who weren’t quite ready to come back from winter break (I mean, who really is ready?). When the kids found out that they had a new friend for the next two weeks, they were elated, and so was I. They were quick to tell me anything and everything as they warmed up to my presence in the classroom, and after an hour, it felt like I had been with the group for months.

For the rest of the week of helping out in the classroom, I got to see the dynamics of the children and each one of their colorful personalities. I also got to see how different SLOCA’s classical and hands-on education is from regular public schools. Going through Montessori Children’s School myself from preschool to sixth grade, I saw how similar SLOCA’s approach is to my grammar school education. But my attention wasn’t only on how the kids were learning, but also on how the teachers were learning and adapting throughout the day. I also got to sit in on some of the conversations the teachers had between classes. The teachers at SLOCA have so much love for their students and their careers. They were always sharing good things about their classes and how they can improve their students’ education for the unique individuals. No child learns the same, and these teachers go above and beyond to find the best way that their students can be taught and learn in their way. Even with a new student to SLOCA in the classroom I was shadowing, the teachers put their heads together and continued to try to find the best ways to help the student get acclimated to their new environment. When the teachers are put near first in the chain of priorities at SLOCA, or even in the system on a larger scale, the kids learn better and have a more enriched education experience because the teachers prioritize their students above all.

WEEK TWO: After my first week of observing and interacting with the adorable students and loving teachers, I thought that something was missing. I wasn’t getting the whole picture of what it’s like to be a teacher by only coming to help out on my Monday/Wednesday/Friday high school schedule. So, I worked it out with the directors of the class (because I enjoyed the immersive so much) to do more than what was offered and expected by coming in every day of the week to get that missing piece. And, I got to meet another amazing group of students who warmed up twice as fast and were still full of love. 

I got to see how different the two groups of students I was working with were, and how the teachers managed each differently. Being hands-on with helping out the teachers and even leading the students through some activities, I was given a greater insight into the different aspects of teaching and got a bit of practice being one. I was able to see how much every teacher genuinely loves their job, and how hard they work because of it.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I am so grateful that I got this special opportunity to see what it’s like to be a teacher. It was so fun working with this sweet groups of kids, and I’m sad that I can’t stay forever like they’re all asking me to do. I’m glad that I got to assist a diverse group of teachers. Like one of the teachers I interviewed earlier in the month, I give an unhesitant ‘yes’ when asked if I would do it all over again.

The Teaching Life at SLOCA: Little Wonders Campus

By Megan Jackson

I’ve spent the last three weeks with toddlers and preschoolers, learning how the SLOCA Tiny and Little Wonders campuses work, and a big part of my time was spent observing the kids. The aspect that stood out to me most, though, wasn’t how the teachers taught their students, but how the students taught each other. I was surprised by how much they knew, and also by the random and hard-to-predict gaps of what they didn’t. This especially struck me when I saw one articulate toddler explain the fuel tank on his toy car to another friend. This detail of information randomly coming out of someone who could have only recently learned how to put his shoes on startled me, and the confidence and teacherly air with which he pointed it out was equally impressive. 

This is what I think was most interesting about the environment that I observed: the student-to-student learning and how it was facilitated by the teachers. When I was in the preschool classroom, I saw how kids would pool their individual knowledge together about how the world works to fill in the gaps of what they don’t know. I used to assume that early teaching was done primarily by teachers, but now I see that it’s almost just as much done with the other children in the classroom. A good teacher should “seed the process and help it flourish” (Christakis 12). I watched students ask their friends to read their lunchbox notes to them, and every time, they would oblige and try to help them understand as they went. I saw one group of friends work together to build a car with a frame, multiple seats, and “four-wheel drive” out of giant Lincoln logs and plastic tiles. These preschoolers were able to visualize what they wanted to make, and then convey to others what needed to be done, what was going wrong, and how to fix and improve their car design. When they got stuck, they got stuck together, and they sat with what was going wrong until they found a solution. “The search for knowledge is cooperative and collective, its pursuit is a shared journey”, and this is something I saw throughout my time with the toddlers and preschoolers (Banner 14). When they hit a wall and couldn’t advance further, teachers were there to offer the right level of learning support to take the child’s knowledge to the next level. I learned that this process was called scaffolding; playing the role of the interested adult helps the child make connections that they would not have otherwise made if they were alone (Christakis 4).

I felt a little blindsided by how creative they were, I was taught how to make big red fireworks out of rainwater and twigs one minute, learned the top walking speed of a penguin the next, (around 5 mph), overheard one student singing the chorus to a Katy Perry song the next, and so on. These last couple of weeks were so full of energy, and as someone who hasn’t been able to have very much experience working with kids before this, it was such an interesting and special adventure.

One student had been struggling to remember to respect others’ toys and the fact that it wasn’t his turn to play. I watched him forget again right after being reminded; he realized what he had done wrong and seemed frustrated and a little ashamed that he hadn’t been able to fix it yet. Preschoolers are so interesting in that they’re continuing to build their knowledge of what works when interacting with their peers and what doesn’t; they have so much knowledge but are still learning how to apply it.

I’ve been at SLOCA since preschool, and this class allowed me to see from a different perspective how the teacher/student dynamic works because living it as a child is such a different experience. As a child, the system revolves around you and your individual growth. It’s such a different feeling to view it from the teacher’s perspective in that you’ve now become part of the system. Even though I’m sure when I was in the SLOCA preschool I registered at some level that things were going on behind the scenes, my level of comprehension of that was so low at the time that it was such a cool thing to be in that same setting again and have the roles be reversed. It doesn’t always flow as naturally for the teacher as for the child; it’s so much more deliberate, there’s intention behind it, and so much planning, reworking, observing, studying, etc., and it still feels so strange to me to think about how that translates to my own experience as a preschooler being so unaware of these things. I want to say thank you to my teachers and the SLOCA staff who let me intern, it was truly an amazing experience!