By Lubiana Mahrin & Rifath Islam
Editor’s Note: We asked Ms.Sargent, a 12th grade English teacher, a few questions about her class, her teaching style, and what she thinks of her job. During our interview she spoke about prioritizing the writing, verbal, and analytical skills her seniors will need in college, then she surprised us by revealing that among her early jobs prior to teaching was a time she earned money by giving tarot card readings as a telephone psychic!
Ms Sargent actually taught at the junior high level at first, then moved on to 9th and 10th grades, then finally up to seniors—the grade she now likes best. She finds that seniors are more mature, and more free. They no longer have to prep for regents, and can create their own curriculum. She also likes teaching the college process, and challenging her students to defy stereotypical admission-board expectations.
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Q: What would you say inspired you to begin teaching English as a career choice, especially to high school students? Do you find it difficult at all?
A: “Well, I used to work as an office assistant and I realized that I needed to get a career. It was a job that I wasn’t happy with . . . making travel plans and getting people coffee. I realized that I was just as intelligent as those I was assisting. I mean, I’ve always liked school, and I think for me, when I was in school I wanted to see teachers who looked like me. I thought it was important for me to learn to give back in our community, and for students to have teachers who were interested and who care.”
Q: What do you like most about teaching English?
A: “ I think English teachers have a freedom that teachers of other subject matter don’t have. So, I have to teach skills: how to read, how to annotate, how to write, how to cite, how to use evidence efficiently. I think the thing that I like about English, is that we can read about a variety of topics.
When we talk about things in my classes, I learn so much every year just by doing research on nonfiction articles that I want to do with my students. So the source material changes, but the skills don’t. I think that’s what I like most about it.”
Q: Which English skills do you think are most beneficial for students who want to pursue STEM majors in college?
A: “Learning how to effectively express their ideas in writing, and learning how to synthesize information.”
Q: Of all the lessons that you have taught thus far—past and present—which is the one you find the most enjoyable to teach or the one that gets the best reaction from students every year?
A: “You know, what’s interesting is that people tend to remember the most recent things that they’ve learned. Books [I’ve taught] that students liked include The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Oscar Wao, and The Glass Castle. I think The Glass Castle is a little bit more surprising to me, because the author (and protagonist) doesn’t look like our student body. She’s a white Caucasian girl from Appalachia. But every time I teach it, students come to me and say this is the best book they’ve read.
As an english teacher I like that, especially in a math and science high school, because I don’t know much about BC or AB calculus, but when someone says “I didn’t like [most books] I read, but this I love” it makes me happy that I’ve been able to turn them on to English.”
Q: Do you think it is at all challenging to teach English at a high school where most students have self-selected careers in STEM?
A: “Not really. Although our students aren’t really humanities students, the students here are so hard working that they tend to work hard at most of what they do. They embrace the idea of working hard in my class, and gaining the [necessary] skills.”
Q: I heard that you don’t let students raise their hands in class, what inspired that way of teaching?
A: “I used to have a principal who came into my room, and she was like, ‘What if students didn’t raise their hands?” I asked her, how do you have a conversation with 30 people where no one is raising their hand? She said ‘But you and I are having a conversation right now, and we are finding a way to make it work.’ It just works. I can’t explain how, but it does. When I don’t call on you to go, and you speak [only] when you feel like you have something valid to say, that is so much more organic.”
Q: Here’s a fun question for the end: would you rather be able to see 5 minutes into the future or 5 years into the future?
A: 5 years. I’m the type of person, that when I read a book, I read the end first. I want to know how it ends.
