First Encounters

January 26, 2007
For the first few days, I was a tall, dark stranger in the back corner of the classroom, casting an ominous shadow that students were afraid to make eye contact with. In one class, the teacher even told a few students that I was a parole officer (which they believed until several weeks later). I distinctly recall the first few, brave students who asked who I was and what I was doing there. It wasn't long until they saw me as Mr. Nice-Guy who could never be mean to them, but I enjoy being formally called Mr. Sierra.

As I grew more comfortable in the shadow of my master teachers, I began to feel confident enough to roam around during activities and offer support to students in need. It felt good when they started to recognize me and would actually call my name to get help. The second week of my student teaching, the school was having finals. So one of my teachers suggested that I could design and conduct a game to help them review. I scrambled to arrange all their review questions in to categories and phrase them like Jeopardy.

When it came time, I could only get about 8 students to participate while everyone else preferred to study independently. Perhaps they were just nervous since they didn't really know me. It turns out the game was a little too complicated and unrehearsed to be really effective. So, the following period, I simply had the students divide into two teams and ask each other questions. It helped to have lollipops as an incentive for the winners.