MTC experience

Was I excited about Mississippi Teacher Corps? Sure I was. Why not?

Since my senior year of Mrs. Shivers’ AP comparative politics class, I knew I wanted to teach. There was something about Mrs. Shivers that just flat out inspired me to be a better student. A passion, a compassion, a determination for her students and her work. I knew what it felt like to be inspired and I wanted to know what it felt like to be the inspirer. And so, I would become a teacher.

At first, Ole Miss was just that convenient university that had an honors college, an international studies program, a marching band, a free ride via my alumni grandpa scholarship, and one helluva college football tradition. Then, it turned into something different. I lived it. I breathed it. I drank it (among other things).  Ole Miss will always be that “spot that ever calls”.

And now you are telling me there’s a program that will allow me to teach in Mississippi, live at home, earn a free master’s degree, AND give me reason to come back to Oxford? Well hell, where do I sign up?

Then came summer school…

This wasn’t so bad, 20ish kids, 50 minute lessons, team teaching. Then come back to Oxford for classes that would help me become a better teacher. (The only thing I might have done differently would have been to live in Northgate. I feel like I missed some camaraderie among my fellow MTCers by having my own place in Oxford) Dr. Gutierrez did indeed motivate me to teach Spanish and teach it well, and boy was I out to teach some inner city Jackson kids some Spanish!

Looking back at Wingfield, everything is kinda blurry. I can only remember a few students’ names without really thinking hard, I have a few lesson plans, and the rest is just kinda like one of the scenes in a movie where you only get to see certain clips of a the revelation moment that happens at the end. Here are the clips that stick in my mind:

Pushing, condoms, tennis team, anger management kid, student/faculty basketball game, afternoons with Ms. Mathis, and then the faces of some of the famous (or infamous) students that I had.

For me, Wingfield is like that big term paper that was worth half your grade for a class in college. At first, you tell yourself that you are going to work adamantly on the paper and make a good grade. But procrastination gets the best of you and you end up throwing things together at the last minute. This is obvious to your teacher (or in this case your students) when you turn in the final project. You get a C even though you know you are capable of getting an A. However you blame it on the teacher and the fact that you weren’t happy with your assigned paper topic. At the same time, because of your mess up on that paper, you have learned how to write better, how to organize your paragraphs, write a thesis statement, and put together a bang up essay. Now you can write that paper for your next class and completely WOW your professor. And so you find out about a new exciting course being offered and sign up with high expectations…

And those expectations didn’t miss a single beat.

Madison Central has helped me love teaching even more (because there were those moments at Wingfield, granted not many, that really did make me love teaching). Motivation and respect, the two biggest characteristics that stood out from my Madison Central kids in contrast to my Wingfield kids. I just felt more at home at Madison Central. I didn’t have to be this hardass teacher that was too big for his breaches and kept a straight face on at all times in order to “potentially” instill some type of fear in the students (wow I was a mess). Now, I laugh with my students, I make fun of my students, I smile at my students, I make stupid lesson plans with pictures of myself photoshopped and wearing a bikini. I call parents and they immediately want to have a conference so we can work out the problem. I fall in that category of the few and far between. Simply put, I love my job. Each morning I drive to school, excited about what could potentially happen that day. I’m excited to see certain students. I’m excited to see my coworkers. I’m excited to eat the lunch I prepared the night before. I love my job.

Other teachers at my school complain about a student in their class chewing gum, texting in the bathroom, falling asleep….at this time last year, I was complaining about students cursing me out to my face, smoking in the bathroom and texting in class then hiding their phone in their bra. All things are relative. Whenever my students frustrate me, sometimes I take a deep breath and think back to the situation I was in at Wingfield and tell myself to let it slide.

Still, I look back at my time at Wingfield and I have a lot of regrets. Would I have liked my job a lot more if I had had better classroom management? Yes. Would I have felt a better connection to more of my students if I had let down my hardass mode every once and while? Probably. Would my students be more interested in what I was teaching if I had put more sense of humor in my lessons like I do now? Considering my sense of humor and theirs, probably not. However, regardless of all these “what ifs” and “only if I hads”, I still consider my time at Wingfield a learning experience that has helped me grow as a teacher and individual.

In addition to my teaching, MTC has sparked my interest and love for my home state. While teaching Spanish might not be as highly regarded as teaching English, Math, or Science, whatever I can do to educate and influence our youth, I’m gonna do what I can.