Emmie! Return from the Classroom

By Lexi Kinsey and Emmie Meeks

LK: Tell us about your experience working as a student teacher- think classroom environment, compared to your school experience at that age, etc…

EM:  Where to begin! It was somewhat surreal switching to the other side. I completed three part-time internships where I was largely observing and working with small groups, so stepping up in front of entire classes was definitely nerve wracking. Since I was working in a high school, I am not as far removed from the kids I was teaching as I would have been in an elementary setting, so I was nervous about how a bunch of teenagers would react to me telling them what to do! I am so happy that the experience I had was so much better than I could have imagined. I was able to build strong relationships with students and watch them grow over the course of the semester. Three of my four classes were freshmen, including the two I lead, and I was amazed by how much progress they made both as students and human beings between August and December. My experience in the classroom was so rewarding.

LK: What skills has Busload of Books equipped you with that you brought to your class?

EM: The research process and public speaking are probably my two biggest takeaways from BoB that I found most applicable. As part of the teaching internship, I had to complete an Action Research project which I found myself applying principles that we use in BoB discussions driving my research project. I found myself in a data similar situation to our own here where I was measuring the impact of an experience quantitatively, but it was impossible to ignore the qualitative outputs as well. While we quantify emoji reactions from elementary-aged students and take into qualitative information from teachers, and Robbi and Matthew themselves about the impact, I was tracking individual student participation for my quantitative measure while taking into account the quality of their participation and the work they produced following the literature circle activity I was measuring the impact of. The preparation I did for the EERA conference I attended last year also helped a lot with my nerves speaking in front of people, being well-versed in the content I am presenting/teaching, and creating visuals that convey the right about of information, but aren’t too overwhelming.

LK:  How have you seen the value of literacy in the classroom come into effect in your student teaching experience?

EM:  Absolutely! I think it’s inevitable as an English teacher to witness anything and everything pertaining to literacy. I had to unique experience of working with both honors classes and increased support intervention classes. I saw both ends of the spectrum, but I have to say they were not as polarized as one may expect. There were students in my honors classes that were struggling, and kids in my support classes that were soaring. As much as I hate to be the one to bring up the pandemic, these kids were in 2^nd and 3^rd grade when the pandemic began, and I think that even now, we are still seeing the effects of lost literacy instruction. That combined with Maryland’s only recent legislation to return to phonics-based skills and the Science of Reading and move away from whole-language approaches. Many of the kids in my classes didn’t know how to sound words out, what prefixes, suffixes, and root words were, and struggled with grammatical structures as basic as parts of speech. I had no idea, probably in my college student naivety, that I would spend so much time on the foundational understandings that I don’t have to think twice about.

LK: Describe some of the challenges you had in your field experience, and how the community at Washington College supported you during those times

EM: Time management! Lesson planning and grading really got the best of me sometimes. Being able to talk to and strategize with my mentor teacher at QACHS, my education professors here at WAC, and my fellow secondary intern definitely helped me break through some of those walls. I also relied on my academic advisor in the English department!

LK: Were there any moments that called for reflection on why you chose this career path? What solidified for you that going into education was the right choice?

EM: There were certainly a few lessons that did not go well at all, and a handful of days where students’ needs were a lot. But even when lessons didn’t go well, I think I knew that I still wanted to teach was when I found myself sitting in the feeling and strategizing for what I could have done differently in the moment and how I would change the lesson in the future. It was somewhat difficult to not want to throw in the towel at some points, but I found myself waking up every day excited for another opportunity to work some of the kinks out, and above all else, to see my students. I think the main thing that kept me going, and ultimately solidified my decision were my students and seeing the progress they were making, I knew that I had at least gotten something right.

LK: If you could give advice to someone moving into the education/sociology field, what would you say? What is the most valuable lesson a past researcher for Busload of Books passed down that you would like to continue?

EM: This is a great question. I think the biggest piece of advice I would give is to learn to be okay with plateaus. We, and I know I did especially, get so caught up in the growth and the progress, and hitting high standards, but there are some points where what we’re doing stops working. Instead of becoming defeated, sit in that stagnant moment, ask questions like Why did the progress stop? Did something change with me? Did something change with—in my case, my students—the people/situation/resources I am working with? There isn’t always a simple solution, but I think sitting with the problem and anatomizing it can reveal a lot about our thought process and help us grow from our experiences.

   The researchers I’ve gotten to work with on the BoB project are all so wonderful and brought so much to the experience. I honestly think a lot of my answer to the previous question comes from them. They were so good at creating out of stillness. This is not always the most riveting work day-to-day, but the end result is so worth it, and I think that’s something I saw from them every week. I hope to pass on the shared drive for working on this project because the work we do is so, so important.