One Month In: TEP Students Have a 3-Month Head Start

How are you feeling about your experience so far?

I’m actually four months in now because the Teacher Education Program began in early-June. Overall, I feel excited for this amazing opportunity to be at Harvard! The summer was quite hectic, but it prepared me well for the challenges I will face in my time student teaching during the year. I also feel like I’ve found a welcoming home with my TEP family. We’re a small cohort, and we’ve gotten so close over the summer through taking classes at HGSE and teaching at the Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy.

What’s your class schedule like?

I’m taking 24 credits this semester, which is the maximum allowed. In this way, I can get all of my classes out of the way and do only student-teaching (which is full-time) during the spring and hopefully take a creative writing class for fun or participate in some research project at that time. On Monday mornings, I take a bus to Arlington High School for my pre-practicum in teaching. I stay the full school day as I observe and help out my mentor teacher. Then I go to the Harvard-Yenching Institute for my Korean history class, which ends in the evening. On Tuesday mornings, I go to Arlington High School again. Then I have a class in the afternoon to evening that is about teaching ELL students. Then on Wednesdays, I have two classes from 1:00 to 8:00 (one about the lasting effects of colonialism in schools around the world and the other on methods of teaching history). On Thursdays, I also have two classes from 1:00 to 8:00 (one on the history of African American Education and the other on ethnic studies). Shout-out to Dr. V, who teaches Ethnic Studies and is also our director at TEP! Actually, many of us TEP students are taking some of the same classes, so it’s great to meet new people but also have familiar faces in the crowd!

What’s your favorite class?

My favorite class is “Traditional Korea,” which is a Korean history class offered at FAS which I’ve cross-registered for. All of my other classes are at HGSE. I’m thrilled to be able to learn more about Korea’s past and hopefully use it in the future to connect with my students if I can work at an international school there again.

How does the workload compare to your expectations?

I’ve had a strange experience in my workload since high school. In college, I majored in architecture. That five-year program was honestly the most challenging and stressful time of my life. Nothing since has compared to that. Then I went to law school for three years, where I studied international law and education law and policy. Despite how competitive law school is usually portrayed, I personally found it to be fairly easy because you just had to study for one exam for each of your classes at the end of the semester and that was it. Sure you were graded on a curve for nearly every class, but if your classmates are already the top of the top, there is not much more you can do but try your best. So Harvard actually feels somewhere in the middle. It’s definitely nowhere as hard as my undergrad (although I’m sure others might have different experiences), and it’s not so laid back as law school was for me either. I have plenty of free time now, but I also have some project work throughout the semester instead of just one assessment at the end. However, the summer was more intensive because we had to teach summer school in the day and take HGSE classes in the afternoon and then collaborate to create the next day’s lesson plans in the evening. However, now that fall classes have started, things are at a much slower pace and I have plenty of more time to do my readings and also relax.

What’s been the biggest surprise and/or challenge?

The biggest surprise was how community-oriented the TEP program is. From the moment we had our orientation in June, I realized that this was nothing like my previous undergrad or grad experiences. You aren’t just one nameless person in the crowd. Here, you have an identity and your story actually matters. We have plenty of community-building; we celebrate each others’ birthdays; we go on retreats (Fall apple picking retreat pictured above). Overall, I’ve never felt such closeness in any program before, and I’m touched by it.

Do you have a favorite spot on campus yet?

I think the rooftop terrace of the Gutman Library is amazing!

Author

undefined Nadia Kashem is a master’s student the Teacher Education Program.

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