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Lessons learned
By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer Editor's note: To understand the challenges first-year teachers face, North of Tampa is following the progress of three rookie teachers at the launch of their careers. This is the third of a four-part series. By now, they've taken roll hundreds of times. They've graded thousands of tests, papers and projects. Long ago their lives ceased to be governed by the hands on a clock, but by the bells that sound the change of class. These rookie teachers are in the home stretch. When the school year began in August, Pablo Gallego Alvarez, Adrianne Hall and Daisy Questell were three of about 900 new teachers who began working for the Hillsborough County school district. They are, like the majority of the hires, new to the profession. In many ways, they have progressed further than their students. Their wide-eyed anxiety has given way to knowing assuredness. Comfortable routine long ago overcame uncertainty. Concern slowly evolved into confidence. All of a sudden, with most of their first year behind them, the rookies are looking forward to the future. "I went through my first year and I'm okay," Gallego said, a mixture of surprise and relief in his voice. "I did an okay job. When I started, I thought I knew everything, but it was tough. It was a learning experience." Gallego, a former semiprofessional basketball player from Spain, is a physical education teacher at Bellamy Elementary School. His career inspiration came from a long line of coaches who helped shape his outlook on life. "I remember my third-grade teacher, but other than that, the only teachers I remember are my PE teachers," said Gallego, who now bears the proud title of "Coach Gallego." Of course there were challenges. Gallego learned to reschedule the entire school around Friday's annual field day, which had been rained out on a previous date. "I was here setting up everything at 5 a.m., but the principal said there were too many chances of rain," he said. Gallego learned that managing his kids sometimes meant sprinting after a special education student who might "snap" and bolt for busy Wilsky Boulevard on a dead run. He learned ways to incorporate math skills in the daily games as a way to bolster his students' performance on the FCAT test. And Gallego learned that he made the right decision in becoming a teacher. "When I teach, I touch the lives of these kids," said Gallego, who wants to pursue a master's degree and sees himself one day teaching at the collegiate level. To be a professor, to teach others to become teachers, would mean that Gallego could "touch thousands of lives, not just hundreds." For now though, Gallego is most interested in touching one life in a very special way. In early April, he proposed marriage to his girlfriend Ellen, who is also an elementary school PE teacher. The two will travel to Spain this summer to meet Gallego's family. * * * Few Surprises Adrianne Hall got a cat for Christmas, a surprise present from her mom. Hall, a world history teacher at Sickles High School, named the kitten Jade and welcomed the cuddly comfort of a purring new friend. It was a couple of months before Hall noticed something and had to change Jade's name to J.J. She was in fact a he. Aside from that little discovery, Hall's first year in the classroom hasn't held many surprises. "My classes are going really well," she said. "I can't believe how quickly the school year has gone by. As a student (at the University of South Florida), it seemed like it took forever. But as a teacher, it flies by. You ask yourself, 'Where did the time go?' " To supplement her first-year teacher's pay of $30,502, Hall took a part-time job teaching at a Sylvan Learning Center in West Park Village. The extra job has only confirmed what she already knew about her profession. "I'm loving it," Hall said. "I'm finding that I'm getting even more comfortable. I definitely see myself in education for the long haul. So my first year has been a good experience." Over the last few months, during the onset of the war in Iraq, Hall has found a lot of ties between current events and the history she's covering in class. "The war is the topic," Hall said. "We're going to be starting World War I, and I love it because there are so many parallels." Throughout the year, Hall said the most interesting part of her job is the interaction she has with her students. "That's the high point," Hall said. "But the low point can also be interacting with the kids. The reason I chose social studies in college was because I just see so many different ways to use social studies to connect to students' lives now and their future. We do a lot of discussions and debate where you need their interaction and opinions." Her biggest success, Hall said, is "creating an environment where even the most quiet kids are stepping up and speaking out. Sometimes it gives me chills." Challenged by Chatter Students in Daisy Questell's computer, business and keyboarding classes get the message the moment they walk into her room at Liberty Middle School. Written in large letters on the chalk board is this warning: "No Talking." "They're so social," Questell said. "Even my son (a seventh-grader at Liberty) says, 'We need to talk, every day, all the time.' " Questell runs her business classes in a very businesslike manner and reserves talking time for addressing the lesson of the day. But she has learned this year that middle schoolers are an exceptionally chatty bunch and a challenge. "Besides school, I also teach a religious education class every Monday night at St. Mark's Catholic Church," Questell said. "It's really helped me learn more about middle school students. They just want to talk and share about everything. They're expressing their feelings, what they think about life and their interests. It's like a therapy group sometime." Questell's newfound appreciation for the inner workings of the middle school mind has helped her in class, too. "I had rules and procedures that, well, they didn't work," she said. "I took a comparative discipline workshop, and that was wonderful. It dealt with classroom management and the different student personalities. I've been using it here with my students." Questell doesn't hesitate to send a student to the office if she can't work with him in the classroom, and she doesn't cut her kids slack when it comes to grades. "For the most recent nine weeks, I had just two F's," Questell said. "The rest were A's, B's and C's and a couple of D's. The F's were because these two girls did absolutely nothing." As the end of the year approaches, Questell said she feels she has made solid strides. "I feel very confident," she said. "I know the students and how to handle them." And her approach appears to be working. Questell already has been assured by Liberty principal Debbie Rodgers that she'll be back next year. "She said to me that I was a good example of perseverance because here I started from scratch," said Questell, who was born in Puerto Rico and took up teaching as a second career. "She has been very supportive. If she asks for something, I'll do it." -- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com
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