Black Collegian Career Center

Reassured a little, I continue the math lesson and the review of yesterday. "Who then can tell me what a fraction is?" I ask. Heads dart from side to side, searching for the correct answer to somehow fly past. Another face ducks down into the desk to hide.

"Oough!" yells Elizabeth as Jesse yanks her braid. "Who knows what a fraction is? Can anybody give the class an example?" No one answers.

Chalk powder rubs into my sweating hand. A pen drops, breaking the dull silence. Finally a hand shoots up in the back of the room. At least someone listened to me yesterday, I think to myself. "Good David, what's a fraction?" He brushes his hair from his face before answering: "I don't know, but can I go to the bathroom."

My head drops before I say quietly, "Take the hall pass." Another hand shoots up, bright eyes ready to give the answer. A smile returns. "Can I go to the bathroom when David comes back?" Then another . . . "Can I go to the bathroom too, Mr. Chiles?" I lift my head, run my fingers across my hair, and begin to reteach yesterday's lesson on fractions. Billy falls from his chair. The children burst into laughter.

Day by day, teaching challenges all of the skills I have developed. Quite often I find myself amazed at the insightfulness of my students, and then, just as quickly, embarrassed as I remember my own pre-teen antics. But during the next six hours in our class day, I am part parent, part social worker, part best friend, part referee, part translator, part doctor. I am a teacher.

Veteran teachers like my mentor Vicky Nishumura attest that the key to a successful teaching career is establishing effective classroom management. "You have to find a balance between being firm and being their friend," she says.

Vicky's strategies emphasize both positive and negative reinforcement techniques. "In addition to immediately reprimanding unacceptable behavior, remember to praise or reward appropriate behaviors and allow them to be models. But above all," Vicky reminds, "be fair. Students remember everything."

As a new teacher to the Los Angeles Unified School District, I have benefited from an experienced mentor teacher who meets weekly to discuss teaching strategies and classroom management techniques.

By 9:00 a.m., I remember the advice of a workshop and begin counting aloud backwards from "5, 4, 3, 2." Instantly, a silent and fearful hush covers the room. We finally begin Language Arts. I am on stage and the center of attention for 36 pairs of eyes and imaginations.

Though there is no core daily curriculum instituted nationwide, educational guidelines for each grade are fairly standard and vary little from state to state. For my 6th graders, our day consists of Language Arts, Multi-cultural Studies, Math, Science, Social Studies, P.E. and Art. For most of our studies I use a directed lesson to introduce the subject material, and then allow my students to work in activity groups to reinforce their grasp of our new concept. Individual work on assignments demonstrates their understanding of the lesson.

Working in smaller groups, I found, allows teachers to explain concepts as needed with more personalized attention. Ann O'Connol, who is the most senior teacher on our staff uses this method, but warns, "A teacher has to have eyes in the back of his head to keep everyone working, instead of playing."

While the subjects may remain the same, there is nothing routine in the day of a teacher. From an emergency fire drill to a flood in the boy's bathroom, crises can strike at any moment and bring an end to even the best planned lessons. With time, each teacher learns their own way to maintain balance and keep their students challenged and occupied throughout the day. The best teachers manage to make it fun -- for the students as well as themselves. For me, as a new teacher, however, the challenge is often just making it to dismissal.

Dismissal, by no way means the end of the day. It's another beginning: teachers' meetings and parent conferences. The day is never easy, and often never ending.

As I am learning, a successful teacher must be able to communicate on several levels: to students, staff personnel and parents. For our administrative sessions and after school committee meetings, good communications skill is an art form. Here, the newest and most senior of teachers must quickly learn to insist on the materials they need for their classrooms. The responsibility for allocating these limited funds, and ensuring the day to day operation of the school, falls upon the principal.

Loreene Bradley, Principal at Valley View, insists that her role as Administrator, "is to facilitate the needs of each teacher, and support each of their individualized approaches to educating students. While budgets force principals to have to make tough choices between being able to provide some materials or programs and turn others down, the decision ultimately comes down to being able to provide the best quality resources for the children."

As a twenty-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Bradley cites this philosophy in all of her decisions, "Whether it is in hiring new teachers and other certificated personnel, or choosing computer software or textbooks, the first consideration is always what can this option bring to the learning environment that another does not."

She stresses this belief, with particular emphasis, in hiring and recruiting new teachers: "We have to look for people who are excited and dynamic in their willingness to share their lives with students. Theory and methodology can be taught and refined, but it's a passion for teaching that makes one successful."

Her views are echoed by Rosiland Seavers, a recruitment specialist with the L.A. School District. "Teachers must bring a vitality and an excitement to the classroom to challenge students with their own potentials."

"We have students from wide-ranging backgrounds and the most diverse ethnic makeup anywhere in the world," she adds. "We want to develop a teaching and certificated personnel staff of talented people that reflect that make up. We have to. We owe it to our students to provide them with the best people out there."

By 4:30 p.m., however, my passion is fading fast and my interest in a new copier for the teachers' lounge has passed. Before we adjourn, the PTA moms want to talk about a dance for the following Friday, and the Girl Scouts bake sale conflicting with the Boy Scouts calendar sale. Because our small school has adopted a parent-teacher copartnership, our committee meetings are attended by a coalition of parents. This collaboration ensures that parents have an active voice in the decisions that affect their children's education.

As a new teacher, this open dialogue between parents has assisted in making my transition to the classroom much smoother, and encourages parents to take an active role in the day to day education of their children. Patricia Johnson, a parent, agrees. "The interaction with the teachers and parents helps us all to be involved, not just with our own (children) but with all of them. It's like a community or a village."

The African proverb says it takes a village to raise a child. As a first year teacher, I am glad to have this opportunity to take an active role in ensuring the future of our collective global village. In its few quiet moments, the teaching profession offers rewards beyond compare. Passing on the life skills to build a future, or simply pass the next grade is a day-to-day struggle, but teaching has somehow added value to my days.

As I am finding out, being an elementary school teacher means much more than just having summers off and long holiday breaks. Each day has its own demands and challenges. But also, each day has its own opportunities and rewards, and the chance to make a difference in someone's life lesson by lesson.

Tired, I finally switch off the lights, lock the door to my classroom, and walk to my car. The next day at Valley View School will begin soon enough. Planning will begin when I get home, with papers to grade, and lessons to prepare for tomorrow. It will be a long night, like last night and the night before.

The patter of feet races past me as I reach for my car door. Screaming voices trail behind like forgotten school books and homework papers. A voice from the crowd calls out my name as an apple is tossed in my direction.

"My mom packed two apples in my lunch. I ate one, and now I just gave you one. So that's one-half. That's a fraction, just like you taught us in class yesterday." I nod my head, and drop my bag into my car. "See your later Mr. Chiles."

I try to hide a smile, and then growl back, "See you tomorrow, Billy . . . and do your homework."

I bite into the apple. Its sweet juice roles down my chin.

I am a teacher.

The Los Angeles School District along with other school boards across the state of California, is actively recruiting candidates to fill teacher vacancies. The district has instituted several programs like the District Internship and other alternative credentialing procedures to assist Liberal Arts graduates in becoming teachers. Minimum requirements include a Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, as well as passage of the California Basic Educational Skills Test and a desire to make a difference in the lives of children.

For further information, interested candidates should contact:

The Los Angeles Unified School District
Personnel Division
Certificated Recruitment and Selection Office
450 North Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(800) 832-2452

People from diverse ethnic backgrounds are highly encouraged to apply.