Tanklefsky 1

Jack Tanklefsky

Kailen Stover

Teacher Cadet

15 April 2019

Putting Up Classroom Walls

Boundaries are a fundamental in life, they are an obstacle that every living human has to

deal with, whether they are physical, mental, or metaphoric boundaries. The United State’s

president, Donald Trump, has put billions of money into putting up a boundary to keep aliens out

of his country -- A boundary that affects many parties. Aliens who reside in the United States,

who may never see loved ones from the homeland again, or those who are kept out of the

country entirely, denied the opportunity to seek something different in another country are

affected alike by the very same boundary. In my shadow classroom, the most challenging part of

the experience was putting up the firm boundary between teacher and friend.

One of the first jobs I gave myself was personally knowing a large portion of the class.

Knowing their name, their interests, and what makes them tick. Although now, I would consider

this task completed, it did not come without struggles. When I see the students three to four

times a week, not only teaching them, but having fun, laughing, bonding with them, my role in

the school became perverted to a few of them. I was asked what my Instagram was, and if we

can hang out this weekend. Although I felt flattered, it is extremely inappropriate for me, as an

aspiring teaching professional, to engage in activities such as these with students. Furthermore, I

gave “high school interviews” with students, where they were free to ask me questions about the

high school experience, and I promised myself that I would be honest in my answers to their

questions. Some were extraordinarily taciturn and did not say a word, but others jumped at the
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opportunity to ask a real-life high schooler all about the ins and outs of the gig. Some asked

about how to quickly get to class, how lunch block periods work, or which teacher is your

favorite. Other students asked me if it is okay to experiment with sexuality or alcohol in high

school, which I couldn’t let myself go to in depth about. I had to set up the boundary where I was

not going to be responsible for diving into a student’s personal endeavors that deeply. The

students had developed a comradery that, to them, made me their older friend, not their teacher at

times, that got so bad, that once, a student asked me about my personal use of drugs or alcohol,

and which of them was my favorite, or what did I see when on drugs. I was dumbfounded. I had

no idea how to respond to this. I just had to set up a barrier, reestablish to myself and the student

why I was here.

Even for my actions, setting up a boundary was challenging. I found myself desperately

wanting to participate in in-class debates or do an assignment that the students were doing and

turn it in for a grade, but I had to stop myself. I had to stop myself from becoming completely

engaged in a social studies lecture so that I could work on my lesson that I had planned for the

students. It was indescribably challenging for me to flick off the student switch and become a

teacher. For the last fourteen years, I have been in student mode, where I am graded on all my

work, on my attendance, on my attitude, but when I stepped foot in Humanities, I had to flip a

switch that was rusted and stagnant from lack of use. In Humanities, I wasn’t a student or the

new kid, I was Mr. Tank, the older guy from elsewhere who was there to teach eleven and

twelve-year-olds the fun of the english language. I needed to put up a boundary that blocked me

from being a student.

My classroom experience has led to me a much deeper understanding of what it means to

be a teacher in the classroom. Reflecting on it now, it seems like a couple of days ago, I was
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sweating in front of the class, tripping over the words to introduce myself. But months have

passed. I have learned that stepping into the role of a teacher from that of a student is

uncomfortable and difficult, because I enjoy learning -- especially learning english, but someone

needs to be the teacher, and other need to be the students. I have learned a lot about myself. I

have learned that I dislike teaching about a book that I read days prior and I dislike seeing

student who refuse to learn. I dislike when students call me, “Jack” because even though I am

less than half a decade older than them, going from “Mr. Tank” to “Jack” seems unnatural at this

point. I learned that barriers are tough, setting them up, putting a limit on the relationships that I

can have with students is weird. As a student, I love being close and friendly with everyone. I put

all of myself on the table, but to these students, I could not do so. But I also learned that I love

teaching. I love seeing the student’s faces when they say my fun assignments, or the fun that they

had doing so with their friends. I learned that those feelings were the reason I wanted to become

a teacher.

A world encumbered by boundaries does not pick favorites. All things in life contain not

only unnecessary, but necessary boundaries, as well, classroom included. Although they are not

always easy, establishing boundaries is key to finding balance between comfort and discomfort.

Rubric rating submitted on: 4/23/2019, 3:54:45 PM by kailen.stover@bvsd.org

10 7 4 0

C - Content: Thoroughly described the mentioned the missing

reflection on your described the experience but does experience
most challenging experience and not give thorough
experience gives specific examples
Your score: 10 examples

C - Content: what Thoroughly Described what you mentioned learnings missing

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you have learned described what you learned from this from experience
from this experience have learned from experience
Your score: 10 this experience

Voice and Tone -tone adds interest & -tone is appropriate - writing and tone -tone is not
Your score: 10 engages the reader, - for a reflective disregards personal reflective -writing is
shows confidence essay, -consistent insights, - indifferent -
and commitment to voice inconsistent voice - inconsistent voice
topic, -consistent speaks in
voice (1st or 3rd generalities
person)

Conventions • -writing is virtually -errors are so few -has noticeable -has frequent errors,
grammar, error free, -text is and minor that it errors in -errors greatly
punctuation, clean, edited and does not interfere conventions, -errors distract from
spelling, sentence polished with reading, -text begin to detract readability
structure appears clean, edited from readability of
Your score: 10 and polished the paper

Format -typed, double -typed with errors in n/a -not typed

Your score: 10 spaced -professional format
font and size, - title
centered /larger font,
- 5 paragraphs

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