New teachers learn lessons of the profession this week
A sigh of relief may be heard coming from two classrooms – and probably many more throughout the Morgan Hill School District – as three young teachers ended their first week in the classroom.
“I had a hard time sleeping all weekend,” Susan Paulsen, one of Britton Middle School’s new teachers, said after the first day of school Monday. “It’s the unknown, it’s thinking about all the details, wondering if everything is ready. Once that first day is over, you have a sense of what to expect, and you’re busy, the class is busy, with the business of teaching and learning.”
Paulsen, who began substituting in 2000, then taught for a couple of years in Fremont, said she was very excited to come to Morgan Hill this year. She’s also excited to be teaching eighth grade physical science, focusing on physics, chemistry and astronomy.
“This is a wonderful district,” she said, “and this is a wonderful school. There is a sense of leadership, a sense of team, and I’m really into that.”
Sobrato High English teacher Jamie Simpson is now part of a teaching team, for the first time. The first day of her teaching career with students in the classroom was exhausting, she said, but also brought a tremendous sense of relief.
“Some parts were better than I expected, some were worse,” she said this week. “I tried to be really serious today, to start off on the right foot, because I do look very young, and most of the students were very respectful.”
The first lesson of teaching she learned: Don’t wear new shoes on the first day of class.
“I really wanted to take (my new shoes) off,” Simpson said. “I can’t wait. I would have loved to offer my students extra credit to break them in for me.”
In spite of her appearance, Simpson said she feels she can gain the respect of her high school students, even though she is not as old as many of the teachers the high-schoolers are used to.
“I guess one of the more interesting things was one class that was mostly 11th graders,” she said. “They kept asking, ‘So how old are you?’ They were a little rowdier than the freshmen.”
There was no question of who the teacher was in Jeanine Thomas’s sixth grade classroom at Nordstrom Elementary, she said. She describes her first week at the school as “amazing.”
“This has probably been the most pleasant experience ever,” said Thomas, who taught fourth and fifth grades in Milpitas School District for four years before coming to Morgan Hill this year. “Coming here has just been an eye-opener. I’m working with a great team of sixth grade teachers, a great principal and staff.”
Thomas said she really does feel like she’s on a team, because she was able to meet with the other teachers over the summer.
“We met a couple of times over the summer and talked about our plans for the year,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was coming in alone on the first day.”
Thomas’ enthusiasm extends to her class.
“I love my class,” she said. “I am very excited to be with them this year. They are a very put-together class. I told them today we’re going to be doing a book report soon, and they are very excited.”
It was her sixth grade teacher, Thomas said, that pointed her in the direction of teaching as a career. She said she takes the idea that something she tells a student could affect their future in a similar way very seriously.
“I want my kids to leave at the end of the year with a realization of the growth that we made together, with a remembrance of my year of influence on their lives. I want them to go out of my classroom to success.”
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at [email protected].
