I teach middle school in the United States -- Da Xia Book Series. Education Observation

Author: Fang Fan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: That year, I learned that the school was offering a summer program, so I signed up to be a summer teacher. I wasn’t teaching summer school for the first time. I knew that the students attending the summer program were mostly those who had failed regular classes and were there to make up credits. Of course, there weren’t any good students. However, the only thing that comforted me was that the summer program students were basically voluntary, unlike regular school, where children who didn’t want to study were forced by the government to attend for 13 years of compulsory education. Before the summer school started, there were two days for student registration as usual. Students who had received acceptance letters for the summer program had to queue early in the school cafeteria. The principal would let in 10 people at a time, and these students would go to the teacher’s booth for the subject they wanted to take and sign up. Each class had 35 seats, and once all the seats were filled, the subject teachers would put up a sign saying “Full.” The students would then have to choose another subject. While registering students, I observed my future students: Normally, Lincoln High School students were mostly Asian, especially Chinese, but the summer program was dominated by Black and Latino students. That’s because the ones who didn’t study and failed were mostly them. There were also quite a few Vietnamese students. It seemed that none of the students registering were “superheroes,” so they probably wouldn’t cause trouble in class. The summer program’s class schedule was different from regular school: only two classes per day. From 8:00 to 10:30 was the first class, then students had a 10-minute break before going to another classroom for the second class, which ended at 1:10. Each class lasted two and a half hours. Normally, each class was only 52 minutes long, so we couldn’t teach the summer program’s long classes the same way we taught regular classes. I believe this is also one of the reasons why many high school teachers are reluctant to teach summer school. Additionally, the rules stated that the summer program’s curriculum couldn’t use the same textbooks as regular school and had to be taught using other materials. This forced summer school teachers to create their own teaching materials that aligned with the same learning objectives and requirements as regular courses but couldn’t be the same as the regular textbooks. This was the main reason why teachers were reluctant to teach summer school. However, for me, since I had been trained in elementary teaching methods, teaching long classes wasn’t a problem. Moreover, creating interesting teaching materials was my hobby, so there shouldn’t be any issues—provided the students didn’t cause trouble. I was teaching high school biology. The school’s standardized textbooks couldn’t be used, but that didn’t bother me, because I had several textbooks from different publishers that could achieve the same teaching objectives. I chose one that could be covered in the six weeks of the summer program and confidently started my job.
Just as I stepped out of the elevator, I noticed that my classroom door was packed with people. Oh no, fighting on the first day? I quickly walked over, only to find that it wasn’t fighting—it was just that the classroom was completely full, with people sitting and standing everywhere. Those who couldn’t find a seat or stand had to stay outside the classroom. Wait! I only registered 35 students, but now there are over 50 in my class? Who’s playing a joke?! The principal was sweating profusely as he squeezed his way out of the crowd in the classroom.