The start of the 2024-2025 school year has seen a lot of new appearances on campus. One of the newer staff, Pamela Deras, is a student teacher for Paul Geddy’s classroom. Student teaching is a vital step toward becoming a teacher; a profession that is familiar to every student here at Mayfair. I have conducted an interview with Ms. Deras to better understand her as one of the new faces in our school:
Pagna: “How long have you been here?”
Ms. Deras: “I just started in August, I’ve been coming here 1st semester to do observations so I’ve been here a while but student teaching, I’ve just started in August so… 4 wells? I would say”.
P: “So did anyone inspire you to become a teacher?”
Ms. D: “My high school teacher. My high school history teacher, she was great, Ms Tamm: she was always pushing us to be good students, she loved history and put that love of history into me. Also, my aunt is a history teacher as well… she’s a principal now but she still loves history so she was always talking about that with me.”
P: “And history, is it your favorite subject to study?”
Ms. D: “Yeah, I graduated with a bachelors in history”
P: “So how was life as a student teacher and how did it change your personal life? Did you study more and work harder?”
Ms. D: “I would say, student teaching changed my life as I kind of no longer have a social life. I don't really have the time to go out on friday nights, not that I did that much before but now I have to grade papers, I have to create lesson plans and my life kind of centers now, around student teaching. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is more of a shift to a more academic life.”
P: “The decision to become a teacher, did it come to you suddenly at some point? Or was there a gradual change with the factors in your life?”
Ms. D: “I had originally begun my undergrad as a biology major and then I realized that I don't like my career… I was thinking ‘what else can I do?’ And I always liked teaching, I always liked helping others.”
P: “Why do you want to become a teacher? What helped you decide ‘this is the career I want?’”
Ms. D: “Apart from me liking history, I also liked my history teacher… so I thought ‘I want to be that history teacher’... I always wanted to be that person in a classroom where a student can feel safe.”
P: “For history, is there any specific fact that you are fascinated in or a time period...?”
Ms. D:”I really like WW2, WW1… The main one that I did was about the GI Bill and how it affected minority groups in America”
P: “I heard that you can choose which school you can student teach, what made you choose Mayfair?”
Ms. D: “I did choose Mayfair because I live in Highland Park… and I have to go to a school that's 20 miles from my campus and Mayfair was somewhat near.”
P: “Do you have anything you do in your free time?”
Ms. D: “I’m very much of a homebody so, my free time, watching movies, spending time with my family… reading a good book, and maybe once in a while getting into adult life where you schedule with your friends 2 months in advance.”
Ms. Deras’s experiences have been interesting to listen to as while we, as students, have been around teachers often, their stories of how they became a teacher and why are often not talked about. Welcome to Mayfair, Ms. Deras, we are glad to welcome a new person on campus, even if it is only for a short while.
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