Life Changing Experiences: A Semester in the Life of an Academic Assistant Garrett Minor Hour 4

Weve all heard the saying You never really know what its like until you take a walk in someone elses shoes. 104 days, 5 months, and 1 semester of journeying in anothers shoes is all it took for me to completely change my outlook on teaching and how I view myself as a person. From most students perspectives, a teacher is an evil being set out to bury kids in homework and projects. Unfortunately, students wont ever understand the life of a teacher until they take a walk on the other side of school life; the life of a high school teacher, or, in this case, the life of an Academic Assistant. You want a prime example of trying on someone elses shoes and experiencing a new and interesting way of viewing school? If this is true, then crossing the border where student meets teacher is worthwhile. For me, becoming an Academic Assistant is one of the best things a student can do in high school. On the first day of this semester, I remember passing through the doorway and quickly glancing over everyone in the classroom. The students all turned around in their chairs and stared at me. Not knowing how to react to this attention, I just gave a pathetic little wave and introduced myself. After clarifying my name and purpose for being an AP Government Academic Assistant, I shared with the students my experience in the class from the previous year and finished by saying, Im really looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you. Well, as it turns out, I learned much more about myself as a person than I did about my students. This semester, Ive learned that I am a better public speaker than I thought, that I can accomplish big projects in a short amount of time, and that I can lead others in a classroom environment. I learned that I was a pretty good public speaker after my first project. This project required me to get up in front of the class and teach the students about the pros and cons of

political campaign commercials. Before the presentation portion of the project I was very nervous about my impending performance. Despite a good three times going through my lesson aloud with my mother, my conscious continued to shout What ifs at me. What if I screw up my speech? What if Mr. Ebert gives me a bad evaluation? What if the students arent interested in what I have to say? I must have buried those pesky questions in the back of my mind because as soon as I reached the front of the classroom and uttered my first words, I saw that I had everyones attention. I continued on with my lesson and breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was over. I soon got my 3-2-1 evaluation back and I was stunned to see that Mr. Ebert viewed me as an excellent public speaker. Shuffling up to Mr. Ebert, I told him that he mustve made a mistake. Pointing out his comment, I explained how nervous I was throughout the entire presentation. He laughed and told me not to be so hard on myself and that I did an excellent job of looking confident and projecting my voice across the room. I couldnt help but allow a wide grin to spread across my face when Mr. Ebert said this. This was the first discovery that I made about myself throughout my time as an Academic Assistant. Throughout the semester, Mr. Ebert had me assist him with many projects and common teacher duties. Easily the biggest of these jobs was the construction of the important civil liberties booklet. I was notified that I was in charge of this project when the civil liberties unit began and the students first assignment was completed. The assignment was for students to pick 2 or 3 court cases each, go home, and research what happened in the cases and what the result of the cases were. They were then told by Mr. Ebert to send their finished research to me via Google Drive. Once all information was sent to me, I organized each students researched cases into files made for their respective blocks. I then proceeded to organize

them in a specific order given to me by Mr. Ebert. Now all in order, I was told to format all pages so that the information found by each student could fit on one page. This required me to go through each document and edit each students work. The crazy thing about this assignment was that I had only three days to finish it. Amazingly, I finished it on time, surprising myself since the project required the organization and editing of over 200 total court cases. I am just happy that I could help my students with their studying as well as discover a new quickness in my work ethic that I didnt know I had. Being picked by my football team as a captain was one of the greatest accomplishments in my life. My coaches obviously saw leadership qualities in me that they thought were special and could be used on and off the football field. Never would I have thought that I could help lead a classroom from the perspective of a teacher. I have grown stronger in my classroom leadership day by day throughout my Academic Assistant experience. In the beginning of the semester, the only thing I owned was the label of Academic Assistant. After getting to know the students, earning Eberts trust, joining in on discussions, and teaching a couple lessons, I am confident that I have progressed, not only in my classroom leadership, but my overall skill as a leader. While learning about what life is like from the teachers perspective, I first imag ined myself strolling about the classroom, scanning for hands that sprouted up out of a sea of faces. I would go over to that face, listen to their question, and then, to the best of my ability, answer their question. It didnt take long for me to realize that I was only scratching the surface of what it means to be a teacher. Teaching and maintaining a productive classroom environment involves being prepared, being the bad guy, and being flexible.

In the early stages of first semester, I learned that being prepared is crucial when teaching a class. Having a binder or two to keep and organize important things such as notes, agenda sheets, projects, weekly discussions, etc. has helped me lots. By using a binder and creating tabs to keep all of my work in, I never have to spend a lot of time looking for anything that I need. This way, as an Academic Assistant, I can move quickly from task to task without losing things or becoming too overwhelmed. Every night, at home, I can prepare myself as well. I do this by looking at the class agenda for the next day so that I know what lesson to expect, or, if I am the one teaching it, what lesson to study. I also learned quite a valuable lesson about preparation as a result of my first teaching project. Mr. Ebert wrote on my 3-2-1 Evaluation Form that I could work on anticipating and preparing myself for questions that will be asked about the lesson. This excellent strategy never crossed my mind before and I see its purpose. By preparing answers to possible questions, I show the students that I know what Im talking about, giving me extra credibility as an Academic Assistant. One incident in late October taught me that, as a teacher, unveiling the bad guy within can be used to ones advantage. One day after class, Mr. Ebert strolled up to me in the weight room and told me that he caught someone cheating on a test and that the cheater was a football player. I was shocked to learn of someone cheating so early in the semester, let alone to hear that it was one of my football buddies. That shock quickly turned to concern as the Academic Assistant/Football Captain parts of me took over. Mr. Ebert asked me to help him talk to the cheating student because I was his Academic Assistant and a captain on the football team. I eagerly accepted. After school the next day, the cheater sat down with Mr. Ebert and me. It was at this moment that the bad guy in Mr. Ebert came out as he set the cheater

straight. He talked with the student about responsibility, maturity, and his expectations. When it was my turn to talk, I discussed the football code, his maturity, and emphasized that he obviously made a mistake and that he would not get off so lightly if he decided to do it again. When the meeting was over, the look in the students eyes told me that he got the picture. Sometimes, in the career of teaching, you must be the bad guy and drop the hammer to keep students focused and in line. Whether its dealing with unruly students, grading multiple assignments, or creating daily lessons, it seems that teachers are always doing something. In order to survive this career choice, teachers must be masters of flexibility. I swear that Mr. Ebert is one of the most flexible men that I have seen and I dont mean THAT kind of flexibility. He is all over the place while he teaches, always doing something in preparation for the next lesson, all while teaching the lesson for that day. As if that isnt enough, when he stops teaching, he is looking for relevant news articles to share and answering student questions. From Mr. Ebert, I learned how to be a flexible Academic Assistant and its good thing I did because I needed to use it come November. Because he needed to take care of his newly born son, Landry, Mr. Ebert left for the month, leaving Mr. Helm, our substitute, and I to take over the class. This situation required me to be incredibly flexible because my expectations were raised since I was a student who had taken the class last year and Mr. Helm hadnt. I viewed the challenge as an opportunity to better myself as a teacher and tried to get as involved as possible. For this reason, I needed to multitask a lot. I took attendance, helped teach lessons about Congress, listened to student concerns, entered grades, and posted assignments to both Moodle and Google Drive. I agreed to be flexible with Mr. Helms way of teaching although I sometimes felt that there were better

ways to teach a lesson. This was a confusing time for me because I wanted to share my thoughts about some of his teaching styles, but I wanted to stay respectful as well. Being as flexible as a teacher needs to be is not always easy. The best thing about being an Academic Assistant is the feeling of satisfaction that I get from helping others. Whether the others are students, Mr. Ebert, or other teachers, the result is always the same with me. I reached this epiphany when I realized that I enjoyed answering student questions. It was incredibly cool to tap into my knowledge and transfer it to another knowledge-thirsty person. Theres just something about that feeling of accomplishment received when a student has that moment of clarity and the light bulbs go off in their eyes. I now realize why people decide to become teachers instead of becoming something that may be more fun or have a better salary. Nothing can compare to the feeling of satisfaction gained from helping others. It is the ultimate reward and the key to happiness. Although the positives far outweigh the negatives, the worst thing about being an Academic Assistant is the workload associated with it. I assume that much of the work assigned for being an Academic Assistant is used to simulate what it is like to be an actual teacher. Although burdensome, the requirement of technology in the projects serves a great purpose, as real teachers are constantly trying to find new technology to spark their students interest and productivity. I discovered during the follow-up to my second project. This project required students to make a comic depicting a certain court case by using a new website that I found online. Students reacted to the project negatively at first, but when they started trying it out for themselves, they began to see how fun the site could be. Another burdensome requirement of being an Academic Assistant were the weekly discussion boards. Again,

although burdensome, I see the usefulness in these discussions. Because the world is growing more technologically advanced day by day online discussions are growing more popular. These discussion boards are excellent ways for teachers to share ideas and tell stories. When we share experiences via Moodle, we do the same thing and end up expanding our knowledge of what it means to be an Academic Assistant. I would recommend this opportunity to someone else because taking on the Academic Assistant program means so much more than just learning to be a teacher. In my experience, the Academic Assistant program teaches worthwhile life lessons and help students learn more about themselves. These life lessons and self-realizations will be different for every individual and they will follow an Academic Assistant around for the rest of his life. Who knows? Some who go through this program might come even want to become a teacher when its all over. If not, there is no doubt that the Academic Assistant program is worthwhile in every way possible. Taking on the huge responsibility that is being an Academic Assistant will benefit anyone who puts forth the effort. An Academic Assistant will learn things about themselves that they cant learn anywhere else. Things like leading a classroom, molding special relationships, and building communication skills are just a couple examples. Not only will an AA learn about themselves as a person, but they will also get a taste of what it is like to walk on the other side and learn about what teachers have to deal with. Unruly students, grading papers, taking attendance, and prepping lessons are a few of many teacher duties. I believe that in this world, people need to do a better job as seeing situations from the opposite point of view. Sometimes all it takes is a different point of view to change your life forever.