How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (Online Reflection #3)

        At the start of the semester, I'll admit that I strolled on in to my first meeting with my cooperating teacher angling for a chance to work with his honor's classes as soon as possible. I have always felt that my strengths lied with educating gifted students and while teaching the bright, supposedly-more-invested kids around our lovely town  remains a great interest of mine, I now have a more realistic appreciation of said group, as well as a more practical outlook as to how to properly challenge an honors class.

     My mentor teacher (and a felicitous schedule) gave me the chance to work with 2 classes everyday. 6th hour is your typical English 9, while 7th hour is devoted to Honors English 9.  At first, I was overly eager for 7th hour. They were going to be ready for the most philosophical of debates! They would want to do the reading! They would be ready to smoothly transition to AP eventually without too much extra assistance! Okay, perhaps I was not quite that gung-ho but believe me, that is probably not too much of a hyperbole. 

     About a week in, I realized that 7th hour would be a very complicated class overall. 6th hour was fun-loving, with a great mix of personalities and few behavioral issues. They are a class  that just naturally seems to face and complete most tasks at about the same pace. The Honors kids were also energetic and lovable, but there were more classroom management concerns and a huge difference in the rate at which individual students completed tasks. One kid would complete a sparkling essay meeting the bare minimum requirement in half the allocated time, one kid would dive into too much detail and do a wide array of extra, unassigned research that left them far from starting their conclusion the day the paper was due. This reality certainly required a certain readjustment of my formal stereotypes concerning Honors kid. They were not quite what I had imagined and that has made my semester all the more valuable, interesting, and at times overwhelming.

 The biggest shock was a girl named Maria*. Maria is likable as a person, but she likes to test that label as a student at times. She is curious, smart, brash, wild, and can not seem to detach herself from her cell phone for too long. Maria will distract me with questions to get me off on a tangent but it is hard to blame her; she seems genuinely interested and I did allow it, after all! Maria makes me laugh. She will spout off inappropriate remarks, talk at the wrong times, dart over to her friends groups, and question everything. She has a history of not being truthful and on time. As my proctor put it she 'doesn't know how to play the school game yet'. It is my job to ensure she does get there, however. It has been difficult and I am sure it will continue to be. 

 However, I do owe her a thank you in at least one regard: she has made me a better teacher by helping me become more open-minded.  I am no longer quick to label one class 'easier' or 'harder' to handle based on labels in the class name alone. I have followed the advice of Heather Wolport Gawron, who states that "there are great things about every class and every student. And just as we shouldn't generalize the negative, so shouldn't we generalize the positive," (2010, 14). I hope to carry this attitude for the rest of the semester and for the rest of my career. There will be problems in every class I encounter, let's just hope I can deal with each effectively while remembering to look on the bright side.  

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2010). The Challenges of Teaching Honors Students. Retrieved November 5, 2015.

* Name changed.