Ready, Set, Go!

By Rhonda Lewis

A teacher-to-be looks toward September

Photo by Steve Lewis

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as I get closer to that light, I am tempted to take a few steps back, unsure that I am ready for what lies ahead. My teaching career is finally at my fingertips. I have passed all the tests and endured all the classes. Yet, in the pit of my stomach, I feel nervous about what being a teacher will require of me.

I think about the teachers who have helped to shape my life: They all seemed so wise and always seemed to have the right answers. Now, I will have 30 pairs of eyes gazing into mine each day, looking for answers to all of their questions. What if I don’t have all of the answers?

I have been reassured by many friends who are already teaching. “You’ll be fine,” they say. I know I will be, but doubt is still at the back of my mind.

This will not be my first job. After graduating from Pomona College in 1999, I returned to the Bay Area and became a “dot.comer” working for a couple of small Internet consulting companies. But I had always wanted to be a teacher. I was the one who would come home from school, line up my dolls, and teach them everything I had learned that day.

I have an aunt who lived close to us when I was growing up in Trinidad and she was a teacher. I loved when she would take me to her school when my school was off on break. I was eight or nine. Her students were much older, but she would give me their old notebooks and I would pretend to grade them.

In 2002, I decided to pursue my lifelong dream and entered the teacher preparation program at the National Hispanic University. Two years later, I feel well trained and supported to become the best teacher I can be.

Those two years seemed like such a long time, but now when I look back, they just seemed to fly by. I can remember each class as though I just took it last semester.

Sometimes my theory classes were intimidating. I remember being confused by all the talk about teaching to standards and differentiating instruction. How would I be able to tell which students were ahead, which were behind, and which were right on target, and then support each one? It was hard to fathom.

But when I started my student teaching, I found it was so much easier to do in person—I didn’t have to divide myself into 100 different pieces.

Student teaching was the best part of the program for me (except that it’s unpaid). I had great mentor teachers, welcoming students, and a great school environment. I not only learned how to plan lessons, meet state standards, and manage my class, but student teaching also allowed me courageously to face 25 students who were looking to me for answers.

I did not have all of the answers, but it didn’t matter because part of teaching is learning. I continue to learn something new every day. 

I am very excited to start my teaching career. My pencils are sharpened, my bulletin boards are ready, and my classroom is organized. Even with the butterflies in my stomach, I am ready for those 30 smiling fourth-grade faces.

Former NEA Student Program member Rhonda Lewis teaches fourth grade at North Tamarind Elementary School in Fontana, California. She wrote this essay several months before beginning her new career.