This past semester I took the penultimate step in an education that Niles West started for me: I student taught high school English. I worked at the Literacy Center in its infant years, and ever since then I have wanted to teach. A specific moment jumps out to me every time I reflect on my student-teaching experience, which is fundamentally tied to Niles West. First, though, some background. Bear with me:

Ever since my sophomore year at Niles West, I have been a runner. A past contributor to this blog, Chris Kammerer (whom I’ve known too long for the good of either of us), suggested I come to cross country practice with him. Since then I’ve fallen in love with distance running, and I continued to run throughout my collegiate career at Illinois Wesleyan—and yes, I also chose to do so during student-teaching. To say this made my schedule difficult would be an understatement.

Daily practice and the full time job of student-teaching made for a grueling schedule that I was certainly not used to as a college student (for you all in high school reading this. One word: naps. One of the best reasons for going to college aside from oh, say, a degree that will get you a fantastic job doing what you love). All kidding aside, though, I woke up at 6, arrived at school between 6:50 and 7:00, taught from 7:30 until 2:15 and all, alas, without naps. I was often at school until at least 3:15 PM working with students or on planning and grading. On top of this, I was (and still am) the director of an after school tutoring program, which entailed meetings and organization outside of my student-teaching duties.

I then drove straight to the athletic center where my cross country team began practice at 4:15 every day. Punctuality being a key component of my coach’s philosophy, I couldn’t really afford to be late. If you aren’t a runner or athlete, know that most days rarely consisted of fewer than 6 miles of running, and two days a week were generally at a pace that many high school students would scoff at if asked to run a single mile at the same pace.

Also, on Tuesdays I had to go to a two hour student-teaching seminar during practice time, which meant fitting in my workouts either before 6 AM or between the end of the school day and 4:30. After practice I went to dinner, got home at 7:30, and then began to grade and plan for the next day…until I fell asleep at least, which was usually around 9:30. Wind it up, start over again.

So, often, I was left feeling completely drained and bereft of a social life outside of practice. Sometimes I felt like I was trying to lead two different lives: the runner, and the teacher. I easily could have kept track of how many times I wore outfits that weren’t related to teaching or running. You might think I was crazy doing all of this, but a drawing from one of my students reminded me why I do this.

During a unit on reading skills, I was teaching how to use inference in reading a text. I chose to be a bit fun and creative and start the lesson using a scene from the graphic novel “All Star Superman.” The students, however, had to fill in the blanks for Lois Lane and Superman, as I had whited-out the dialogue. Needless to say, the students had a blast, and I received some of the funniest work my students had ever done for me: all of it legitimate writing based on the inferences they made from the visual they had to work with (imagine a reluctant Superman going to the sun for Lois lane, begging of him to bring back Solar donuts “…with solar sprinkles!!!” as he flies away).

The next day, one of my students—who struggled with ADHD—gave me a drawing which I’m looking at as I type this: a simple Superman logo colored in with marker. The reason I have this hanging on my desk is twofold: 1) it reminds me of this student every day, who inspired me to try my best every day, as he did struggling with ADHD, and 2) it reshaped my philosophy on the double life I felt I had been leading. All of a sudden, cross country and teaching didn’t have to feel like separate, conflicting endeavors. Much like Clark Kent changed into Superman, I came back from school each day and changed outfits accomplishing in each half of the day feats that would normally be enough to make a single person reconsider his life choices. I felt like I was taking on too much to accomplish all at once. This one student, however, reminded me that I (and most of you, readers, too) have been doing this since I was young.

Most of us can remember coming home from practice, music lessons, choir, or competitions exhausted enough to shirk our duties for school, but completing them anyways because we knew that school was always important. What I believe was really happening was that the values we learned through those extracurricular activities—commitment, trust, devotion, determination, passion, courage—are all values that make us better students, siblings, sons, and daughters. I realized that I’ve been juggling school, social life, and sports since my time at Niles West: I worked in the Literacy Center, ran cross country and track, and still was able to get my schoolwork done. Student-teaching should be no different, then, right?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my best cross country season ever came during my semester student-teaching. The determination and endurance I learned from running helped me in teaching; the fun and inspiration I took from my time teaching helped me approach practice with a positive, can-do attitude every day. How could I not love what I did all day? And when you love what you do, you do your best work. Anyways, to this one student, I was his Superman—what better indicator that I was doing my best work, that I had made a meaningful impact on his education?

What is so valuable about the time you have at Niles West is the vast array of choices for extracurricular activities, ranging from Auto Club to Hip-Hop club, from Slam Poetry to G.S.A., each of them with their multitude of skill sets, values, and concerns which make the diversity of Niles West its most endearing trait (seriously, take a look at the clubs and activities under Niles West News’ “10th Period” section—there’s a ton!). I implore you to take on some activity in addition to your normal school day—and not just to impress colleges and universities to which you apply, but to experience the love of those who are passionate about the same things you are, to learn that what you get out of extracurriculars has a huge impact on your schoolwork and the value you have for your education.

Please: commit to, trust in, devote time to, determine goals about, be passionate for, and be courageous with what you choose to do with your education at Niles West. Be creative and find something about which to become passionate.

Trust me: it can be tiring, but you’ll get so much done sometimes that you’ll feel like Superman.

Mike’s Bio:

Graduated Niles West: 2007

College: Illinois Wesleyan University

Major: English Literature, with a concentration in secondary education and a minor in philosophy

Favorite Part about Niles West: English Department/Lit. Center, rm. 1199, and the pool hallway (so hard to pick just one!)