Colin Hanke

Field Experience at Dakota Meadows Middle Schools, Spring 2020, Spring 2022

I served as an AVID tutor during the Spring 2020 semester prior to the start of the Covid pandemic. I tutored 8th grade math at Dakota Meadows Middle School for two weeks before we were sent back home. I think working with small groups of middle school students really solidified my career choices, even though I was tutoring for math. Despite not being able to complete this experience due to the pandemic, I learned the importance of relationships. Students were more likely to ask me for help by the second week than they were on the first day of meeting me because we connected on a personal level. I also learned more about the AVID program. This was the first time that I had heard about the program, and it is basically a college-preparation focused on instilling intrinsic motivation. 

 

That being said, I was placed back at Dakota Meadows Middle School in an 8th grade language arts classroom during the Spring 2022 semester. I intentionally delayed my education courses and field experience until the pandemic was over because I knew I didn’t want to do any online instruction or simply miss out on it. We were supposed to spend the majority of our time observing but we were required to teach two lessons by the end of the semester. The cooperating teacher that I was paired with this semester was really good in the sense that she gave clear instructions and managed her time well at school. She took pride in the fact that she never did work outside of her contract hours because she used her prep time wisely. This was something that I am going to strive for. It was difficult to work with the cooperating teacher that I was placed with at Dakota Meadows Middle School though. She struggled to give up control of her classroom and during the lesson that I was supposed to teach, she talked over me. Despite being tasked with developing my own teaching style, I was overshadowed. I found myself getting frustrated, but I also realized that this experience was short-term. I think that this experience was valuable because I learned that I might have to learn how assert myself in a classroom without undermining my cooperating teacher during my student teaching semester. I also learned how to be patient and adaptable, which are important skills that I will need as a classroom teacher. I was also able to reflect on whether I would have a hard time in the future after years of experience temporarily giving up my classroom to a pre-service teacher.

 

Furthermore, I was able to observe my cooperating teacher teach a unit on The Diary of Anne Frank. I was able to watch my cooperating teacher have difficult conversations with students in the classroom, and this was valuable to my professional development as a classroom teacher. I think teaching about genocide is important. However, I was kind of upset when the students turned in their final projects. Their final project was a diary that highlighted everything that they learned about the Holocaust and genocide over the course of the unit. It was clear that the students did not understand the violent nature of the swastika because nearly every student in the classroom had drawn them as artwork on the title page. I wasn’t in a place that I could address it because I was a pre-service teacher at the beginning of the education course sequence. It bothered me leaving the classroom without at least letting the cooperating teacher know. I think students took away a lot from the unit based on the content of their diaries, but ultimately, there needed to be a conversation regarding symbols of hate. This experience taught me what I would do differently in my own classroom if I was teaching a unit on genocide and in the future when I have pre-service teachers in my classroom. 

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Sigma Tau Delta (English Honor Society), Fall 2022, Spring 2023

Sigma Tau Delta is an international honor society for students of English at four-year colleges and universities that perform well academically. I was inducted into the organization as a junior with one of my close friends from the school newspaper. I was excited because the organization seemed to offer a lot of professional development opportunities, I had friends that were involved in it, it would allow me network with other prospective English teachers, and I really admired the faculty advisor. Looking back, the organization was not really all that active because of the pandemic. There wasn’t an interest in meeting for events because Covid was spreading like wildfire at the time. The induction ceremony was held in person, but social distancing and mask wearing decreased the quality of it. This was right before Thanksgiving break, before the university required all courses to transition online for the remainder of the semester to minimize the spread of Covid. This was the only event that I attended as a general member.

 

The following year, the faculty advisor nominated me to serve as the president while she went on sabbatical. I was nervous, but she said that she wasn’t sure who else she trusted with the organization. I think I was nervous because I hadn’t even been a general member during a normal year of the organization. She reassured me that I would be just fine. I agreed to be the president after I found out that the vice president and the secretary were some of my friends in the English teaching cohort. My responsibilities as president included coordinating with the new faculty advisor, helping plan/lead the induction ceremony, hosting general membership meetings to plan events, and delegating tasks. In this role, I was good at communicating and planning. The other officers were really good at helping me plan and suggesting ideas. We honestly worked really well together and we bonded over the fact that we were all in the same program. Ultimately though, this was a difficult role for me to fulfill.   

 

I think what made this role difficult for me was the fact that we were in our rebuilding year, and I didn’t know what I was doing. We hadn’t ever met for a general membership meeting because of the pandemic, and I had never even got to participate in the organization as a general member before being selected for a leadership position. This was why I kept the events and general membership meetings to a minimum. I knew it would be hard to get people engaged in an organization while the faculty advisor was on sabbatical.

 

During the first general membership meeting, there was one individual that showed up in addition to the officers. It hurt my feelings and I took it personal. When I look back on this experience, I am glad that it happened because it forced me to do some reflection on my leadership. I think I am a likable person with good planning skills, but I also tend to take things personally. I learned that this wasn't about me. We were in college, coming out of a pandemic, and people obviously live busy lives. I think that this will be important as I begin to lead a classroom full of secondary students who might not be interested in what I have to say. I also think that I have a strong personality, and this can be off-putting to some people, especially when I don’t extend grace. As I continued to organize and collaborate with the other officers, I experienced the same lack of participation from members. It was disappointing, but it taught me not to personalize these types of things. I learned the value in extending grace and being flexible when things do not come out the way we plan. When I look back, I am glad that I had this experience in college because I think I would have took it very personal the first time a lesson didn’t go the way I planned.      

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Student Teaching at the Aldine Independent School District, Fall 2023

The Aldine Independent School District is a high poverty urban school district located in Houston, Texas. I decided to complete my student teaching semester at Aldine because I knew that I would likely be living in a large city after I graduated from Minnesota State Mankato. Why not gain teaching experience in an urban district?

 

When I first arrived in Houston, I attended a student teacher seminar at the Aldine administration building. We were told what to expect in terms of planning and instruction and we filled out a form that indicated whether or not we were interested in working for the district upon graduation. I was excited to see what kind of an experience I would embark on, but I was also really scared. I knew deep down that my teacher preparation program hadn’t prepared me for the reality of urban schools, but nonetheless, I was ready to lead the classroom. 

 

When I arrived at Stovall Middle School, I sat in the office for the two hours anxiously waiting to talk to the principal. I hadn’t received a response from my cooperating teacher all summer long, so I wasn’t sure if they knew I was coming. I watched students pass through the metal detectors with their clear/mesh backpacks and I listened to the bell ring loudly as the principal began reciting the pledge: “Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under god, one and indivisible.” I remember my pupils beginning to dilate as  the principal continued, “Please continue standing for a moment of silence.” I couldn’t believe students were walking through metal detectors with clear/mesh backpacks, that the principal had read a Texas pledge out loud, and had made the students pause for a moment of silence (which seemed as the closest thing to a prayer as one could get in a public school). I started to panic and wonder what I had gotten myself into.

 

After two hours, the principal came to speak with me. She apologized for the delay because there was an issue that she had to deal with. Looking back, it was probably a fight, a drug issue, an angry parent, or some combination of the three. She asked me what university I was from and when I told her, she seemed excited. She welcomed me to Texas and informed me that my cooperating teacher had resigned last minute and that she was going to put me with Ms. Whelchel. She smiled and said, “She’s good. She likes things a certain way, but she’s good. I’m excited.” We began walking to Ms. Whelchel’s classroom and she asked me if I was interested in coaching. I told her that I wasn’t much of a sports guy. She smiled and assured me not to worry. While I was walking with the principal, there were two boys that were calling each other homophobic slurs. It wasn’t addressed, and I felt myself getting triggered. I remember asking myself, “What kind of a school was I going to be working in? Why didn’t the principal call that out? Will I be okay here? What if my cooperating teacher is a homophobe? How would I ever be able to lead a classroom if these were the attitudes that permeated the school?” I battled a lot of homophobia throughout my K-12 schooling experience and I felt as if I was about to do it all over again. I wasn’t okay in this moment. 

 

The principal knocked on my cooperating teacher’s door in the middle of her lesson. When she came to the door, the principal said, “Here’s your student teacher. He’ll be with you for some time and then he will go to social studies.” Ms. Whelchel’s face told me that she wasn’t aware of the fact that I was coming. I remember her asking the principal some questions before she was able to run off, but I was too busy wondering whether or not I made a mistake coming to Aldine. I followed her back into the classroom, and I sat in the back and watched her started teaching. I was very intimated by her because she was a really good teacher. I wondered if I would ever be as good as she is. As she was teaching, two girls turned around and looked me. They smiled and asked me who I was. I told them I was a student teacher and that I would be in the classroom with them for the next few months. One of the girls said, “In this school? Good luck, mister.” Looking back, it was on brand for her to say that. I have a good relationship with that student because she tells it how it is, but it still made me more wound up in the moment. 

 

At the end of the class period, Ms. Whelchel came to talk to me. We formerly introduced ourselves and she explained that she was new to the profession, that I was her first student teacher, and that she wasn’t sure about the university requirements I had to fulfil. She looked young but taught like a veteran teacher. We went to stand by the door during transition and I remember asking her what she thought of the school. She told me, “It’s different” and as we continued talking, I learned that it was only her second year at Aldine and that she was from Iowa. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical of her on the first day because she looked extremely burnt out and she told me she was leaving two hours early that day. I also knew she might struggle to give up some of the control in her classroom because she was extremely passionate about the job. I felt a bit better about being in her classroom after I saw inclusive Legos on her desk. Ms. Whelchel is probably the only staff member at Stovall Middle School who is an LGBTQ+ ally. She works hard to cultivate an inclusive classroom community. I also find my initial impression of her to be a bit amusing. She is the textbook definition of “Type A personality.”  Her lesson plans are done a week in advanced, she is the only teacher in at CBPL meetings that knows what is going on, and she arrives at school at 6:45AM every morning (even though she doesn’t have to be there until 7:55AM). I’m glad that I was matched with her. We became close friends throughout this student teaching experience. 

 

That being said, I think that being a good teacher is tantamount with being a good leader. I learned a lot about leadership throughout my student teaching experience with her because I learned how to deal with homophobic staff members, how to ignore workplace drama, how to build connections with kids, and how to teach from the heart. I could describe hundreds of incidents that would make one laugh, and I could describe hundreds more of incidents that would make one cry. Most importantly though, I learned the art of “picking your battles” when it comes to leading a classroom full of middle school students.  

 

For example, at the beginning of September, my favorite student threatened to bomb the library after we told him about library day. It was definitely a joke, but I really thought it needed to reported to an administrator. Ms. Whelchel reported it and let them know that he was joking and that it wasn’t that serious, but someone needed to talk to him. I left that day thinking that kid would probably just have an uncomfortable conversation in the guidance counselor’s office. I also questioned whether it was the right thing to do. The next morning on the attendance roster, I noticed that the student was placed in SAC (in-school suspension). I looked at Ms. Whelchel and said, “what the f…” and we both starred each other with these ghost-like faces. We made a game plan to go see the kid in SAC and drop off his assignments. When we entered the SAC room, it was really heartbreaking to see students in there. It felt like solitary confinement and the woman who runs SAC was not very nice. It wouldn’t be uncommon for her to swear at the kids or call them names. 

 

When we went to go talk to the kid, he starred out the window in the hallway and touched the glass. He had tears in his eyes and was apologetic. We apologized to him and told me him we wouldn’t have reported it had we known he would be put in SAC. He told us that he was put in there for 3 days, he didn’t know how to do his math homework. My heart sank. Ms. Whelchel said, “We’re going to call mom and try to make her not mad, and we’re going to try and get you out of here, but you know that might not go over very well.” When we told him we had to go back, he asked if he could just look out the window at the sun for a little longer. I felt so awful. 

 

The attempts to get him out of SAC failed. The assistant principal told Ms. Whelchel that he needed to learn his lesson and that he was just manipulating us. She told her, “You’re too compassionate.” When she contacted home, the mom apologized and told her that she’s a police officer and would handle it.” The next morning, we saw the kid and loaded him up with candy. We hugged on him, and he laughed. He handed us a note and went to SAC. It was a cry for help. He also had a big hoodie on and baggy pants that morning. We tried to get him out of SAC again and the assistant principal’s answer stayed the same. “You’re too compassionate and he’s manipulating you.” It really bothered me because the research shows a strong correlation between time spent in SAC and failure to graduate high school. I know actions have consequences, but I also believe more in second chances. This was important for me to learn right away because I learned that I can’t bounce the ball into anyone else’s court in these schools and I need to try my best to handle things myself. Otherwise, it’s out of my control. I learned that as a leader in the classroom it is important to consider what might happen as a result of the way that I handle behavior issues.

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When I think about leadership in student teaching, I think I am naturally good at making connections with people. I was really worried about connecting with students because I have lived a very different life from them, but this seemed to come natural for me. It took a bit for me to warm up, but even the naughty boys (even the ones who I worried about being homophobic to me) would come up to me and “dap me up” in the hallway. I seemed to be able to get students to do work because of the relationships I built with them. The fact that I was able to do this gives me the confidence I need to lead my own classroom in January. I also think I am good at communicating with not only the students, but also my mentor and the administration. As noted in the reflections above, I can be a lot for people at times because of my strong personality, but I am well-spoken about what I need to be successful. On the other hand, my leadership weaknesses are that it takes me awhile to warm up to places I am unfamiliar with. This was a very difficult adjustment for me at first, and it took nearly half a semester for me to come out of my shell. Ms. Whelchel helped by doing a co-teaching model with me. I almost quit the first week because of this, but I was encouraged to stay, and I knew deep down that I had to stick it out. My student teaching experience at Aldine has been one of the most impactful experiences of my entire life. I was able to learn about the realities of urban schools from the best cooperating teacher and friend I could ask for. I was able to get a clear picture of the systemic issues that exist in schools, and I was able to learn that my approach to teaching in areas that need extra love is to be nice to people. The only way to get students to perform and complete assignments is by being genuine and showing them that you care about them.