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Erica Jacobs
Education ExaminerErica Jacobs is the Education columnist for the DC Examiner, and has taught high school and college for 33 years. She has been around the education block! Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
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by Erica Jacobs, Education Examiner
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Yesterday was a day of "last" things. It was the last class before the AP test with many of my students, it was the last after school session where I cook and review simultaneously, and it was my last May 1 as a high school teacher. (Next year I will work at George Mason University teaching composition.) The entire day had a bittersweet quality along with its frenzy.During class, I noted what has been true for a couple of weeks, much to my chagrin: I am much more nervous about the AP test than my seniors are. But they have been good about humoring me, so we all soldier on. They pretend to be interested in reviewing, and I expend enormous quantities of energy reviewing and recapping.
And cooking. Seventh period, I spent the whole period (which my team-teacher taught) making quesadillas ready to be grilled after school. There were still plenty of hot dogs and grilled cheese makings, but I really wanted a Tex-Mex food fest for the last session.
Enter guacamole, sour cream with chili powder and red onions, three kinds of tortilla chips, two kinds of salsa, and the de riguer hot sauce. As the students trickled in, their eyes got huge.
I had the quesadillas ready to go and the two sandwich grills smoking. (This, by the way, is not allowed in the classroom, but many administrators have looked the other way because they see everyone is having too much fun!) Enter Katie, one of my best students. She became sous chef. She carefully watched me cook the first two quesadillas, then said she was ready to do it herself while I controlled the crowd and got them working on AP practice.
And for the next hour and a half, she did all the cooking! Sezan cut the quesadillas in sixths, and distributed them to the massive hoards (85 students crammed into a classroom designed to hold 60), and then Katie moved onto grilled cheese and hot dogs. She was taking orders, buttering bread, flipping doggies and grilled cheese, and smiling the whole time.
So I learned something about delegation yesterday, a lesson to hold onto along with my other mix of emotions. Giving students the tools to carry on without you is the most lasting gift a teacher can give. Well, that and the spicy memory of a chicken quesadilla!
Topics: AP , review , quesadillas , students , after school
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