TOADTalk: How to Become a Spanish Teacher
Señora Henderson took us on her journey from uninspired high school Spanish student to inspired high school Spanish teacher.
This is my 20th year teaching high school. Over these 20 years many students have talked to me about what they hoped to be “when they grew up.” I heard about doctors and nurses, investment bankers, working with tech start-ups, some wanted to be artists—it has really run the gamut. But in those 20 years, no one has ever said to me, “Señora...what I really want to do is to become a high school Spanish teacher. Oh, and coach JV basketball, too.”
Those who played on my tennis and basketball teams know me as Coach Henderson. My Spanish students know me as “Señora.” Kids in the dorm and Spectrum know me as Ms. Henderson. My new adult friends know me as Juliet. One person here knows me as Mom. And I imagine that I have been referred to by some as “the lesbian.”
“Oh—the new Chinese teacher?”
“No...no. The other one.”
I thought I would take this opportunity to talk to you about the serendipitous events that have occurred in my life that led me to teaching high school—in all my various capacities: as Señora, Ms. Henderson, coach and yes, even the lesbian.
I think that many people think that teachers knew they wanted to be teachers since they were young. This is not always the case, as you will hear from me today. Sometimes you just sort of stumble your way there, as I did.
My mother kept a school project that I made at age seven—it’s a booklet called “About Me” (copyright 1979).
“My favorite school subjects are: ‘jim’ and math”
“Here is a hard math problem I can do: 2+4+29=28”
Apparently I thought I was a better math student than I actually was.
Another section is called “When I am grown up I hope I will and will NOT not be…
I will be:
A lawyer
I will not be:
A bad person
Rich
Poor
(setting myself up for wholesome and boring middle class right there).
And then, in the “what will you not be section” I boldly wrote “a teacher….”
Not an auspicious beginning for a career in academia.
As I considered this TOADTalk, I thought back to Ms. Pidduck’s coronation (inauguration) and how her former teachers were so impressed with her intelligence as a Thacher student, that they read her comments to us. I thought it would be fun to revisit my high school years, reread the praise that my own teachers had heaped upon me and bask in the glory of my teacher comments.
I should add here that another misconception about teachers is that we have always been successful in the subjects we teach. This is most certainly not the case.
Unfortunately, in many of my comments, the words “satisfactory,” “adequate,” and “attitude needs improvement” were used more often than I would like to remember, and I thought that you all would like to hear a couple of my Spanish teachers’ comments:
Grade 9, semester grade: B-, year grade: B-.
“Juliet could write a new textbook entitled ‘How to Learn Spanish With a Bare Minimum of Effort.’ She is a very bright young woman who really does not like to have to study. She made my Spanish classroom a happier place with her good nature and sense of humor, but I wish she had transferred some of her energy for having fun into energy of studying. She could and should have done better work this year.”
Grade 12, semester grade: B, year grade: B.
“Juliet's performance this term has had its ups and downs. Missing as much class as she did during the tennis season put her at a disadvantage in terms of understanding La Casa de Bernarda Alba, and her final test on it was only mediocre. On the other hand, Juliet did a great job on all of her vocabulary quizzes and she was really conscientious about rewriting compositions this last term. I feel that Juliet made real progress in the course of the year in terms of both her oral and written Spanish. I'm really delighted that she will be able to put it all to use in Spain next year, and I will look forward to postcards written in impeccable Spanish.”
I did not read my geometry comment where I squeaked by with a C- for the year.
As you can tell, I did not peak academically in high school.
In the social realm, I remember distinctly two conversations I had with friends: 1. Talking about our future husbands: I would marry a tennis pro. My imaginary, future husband would be tall and impossibly handsome and we would live in the Bahamas and spend our days playing and coaching tennis. Second conversation: 2. Would my friends and I join sororities in college? Well, I said...maybe if the sorority was filled with people like me—you know, the sporty girls who like to hang out together. I did not realize that I had just described every 1990’s lesbian bar.
But yet, I still hadn’t realized I was gay.
Right now, nothing I’ve told you has shown you the Spanish teacher-to- be, but… one decision changed everything.
I was a year younger than my high school classmates and, as you have just heard, not particularly invested in academics. My parents were very supportive when I started expressing interest in taking a gap year. And, since I had been “studying” Spanish for five years, Spain seemed like the obvious choice of a place to spend a year away.
In my year in Spain, I ended up playing basketball most days with a team I joined when I first arrived. Not to stereotype at all, but I met my first girlfriend on that team. After we first got together, I was like, “OMG it all makes sense now—I am so gay.” It still took a little while to come out to my friends, and even more to my family, but by the time I was 20 I was out and proud to everyone.
My road to Thacher was becoming a little clearer—tennis, basketball, gay, Spanish...but where did the teacher part come in?
I graduated from college with a B.A. in Spanish, broke up with the Spanish girl, and was a little lost for a while. I needed to support myself, so I worked at Starbucks for two years in West Hollywood. I had done much better academically in college than in high school (juniors, seriously consider taking a gap year). Surprisingly, I found that I missed being in school. I applied to graduate school and got into UCLA for a PhD program in Spanish literature. Upon my acceptance, I was very disappointed to hear that I did not receive a fellowship, which would have paid for the entire program. What I did receive was a teaching assistantship, which meant that I would have to teach Spanish to undergraduates in order to have my tuition waived. I was dreading it.
I had an orientation, along with my fellow TAs, and walked into class the first day with a lesson plan and my fingers crossed.
Well, it turns out that I loved the teaching part of my graduate program. In fact, I liked teaching more than the graduate program itself. I enjoyed the classes I took—the discussions with my fellow students and the professors—but after two years, I realized I was done with writing papers. I had also spent the past year playing pickup basketball at a local park and there was a woman who organized it who I realized I kind of liked. Her name was Stephanie and we were a couple during my last few months of graduate school. (She’s up there!)
I took comprehensive exams and ended my program with a Masters in Spanish literature;
Stephanie and I had moved in together at that point; and I still didn’t know what career path I wanted. I did some temporary work and looked for jobs that sounded appealing. A few of my grad school friends who also hadn’t pursued a PhD had tried out jobs at independent high schools, and, while I didn’t think that I would like to spend a lot of time with high school kids, I kept that option in the back of my mind. As working as a temp became mind numbingly boring, I starting looking more seriously for a full-time job. As luck would have it, Westridge School in Pasadena was hiring, I applied and got the job. And, as it turned out, I actually did enjoy spending time with high school kids (not so much the middle schoolers, though).
I spent seven years at Westridge when Ms. Thomas and I decided to try something new and move to the east coast to work at a boarding school. By this time we had two kids in tow. After 12 years, we decided we wanted to move back west, and a job at Thacher was open. I had heard about this horse school and, after talking to Mr. Hooper in a phone interview, it sounded like something that would be a good fit for the whole family. We came to Ojai to interview at Thacher and, a year ago today, we accepted the jobs that we currently hold.
And that, my friends, is how you become a Spanish teacher at Thacher.
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