Life at Lakeside

It is almost officially half way through the first semester at Lakeside High School!!! My first year in the classroom has been good, there have been adjustments, challenges and lots of questions (mostly from me asking my students how work some componet of Google Classroom, HAC, TAC…etc). While there is still a TON of room for improvement for me to make as a teacher so far no one (myself included) has thrown in the towel. Won’t lie some days I walk in and feel like I haven’t gotten a single clue how I am going to teach what I need my students to learn, and sometimes I make mistakes. I have learned that students will ask ANYTHING, and suprisingly enough an answer of “I don’t know” won’t send the classroom into total tail spin, sometimes it works out and we are able to successfully find the answer together. Other times it leads to a rabbit trail totally off topic for 10 minutes and then no one knows what the lesson was originally supposed to be about, but at least they learned (or that is what I tell myself).

The biggest adjustment for me is the realization that I am spiritually responsible for these students. There are days I am teaching them something, and I just look out in to their faces and feel a large sense of responsibility, not so much to educate them, responsibility in the sense to spiritually plant seeds. There is one of my classes that feels like they need a LOT of seed planting, and they tend to really find all the ways I need to improve myself as well. I have students that I sometimes wonder, why are you in my class? I know it is no mistake for me to have the students in my class, it’s also no mistake that I have the opportunity to teach Anatomy and Physiology. What better way to integrate some faith into a classroom than studying the wonderful way we are all put together.

Overall Lakeside has been wonderful, I enjoy being in the classroom, I enjoy being an Athletic Trainer. My years at Siloam prepared me to take this next step. I had, in my opinion, the best example of an educator and Athletic Trainer in Brian Nitz. Between the example Brian set for me, my college Anatomy and Physiology professor Dr. Snellen, who really taught me not just to love Anatomy and Physiology, but also how to teach it through example. I feel I can continue to find ways to educate my students and provide them with a solid educational founcation to take with them beyond high schol.