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Bridging The Gap Between Two Worlds

by Erika Pierce

I am a high school teacher; I am a college Professor-- it really depends on the day and time! Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings I work at the local high school and teach my one section of United States History. There, my students call me "Ms. P." Immediately after class on these days, unless I am meeting with or helping a student at lunch, I go across town to my other, full-time job at the University of Virginia, where I am known more formally as "Dr. Pierce."

All day on Wednesdays and Fridays I work at the Curry School of Education to meet with students and colleagues, plan and teach my two education courses this semester, and work on various research projects with which I am involved. Weekends, I plan for my high school class, grade history assignments and college essays, and try to keep current on the latest educational research in my areas of interest. I think I might rest little on Friday nights. At least I think I rested one Friday back in October. However, despite this crazy schedule, I absolutely love my life – I am living my professional dream!

When I became an instructor at the Curry School of Education last year, I realized that, for me, there was something missing. I was hired as an Assistant Professor to work on the Carnegie Corporation's Teachers for a New Era grant which has as its goal, among other things, to create partnerships between Schools of Education and local public schools. My responsibilities include developing and teaching education courses at the University for whom the grant prospectus calls "late-deciders" – third and fourth year undergraduates who are thinking of teaching after graduation.

I designed four courses for these students that I refer to as Students Exploring Teaching (S.E.T.) courses and although I wholeheartedly enjoy teaching at the collegiate level, I felt that because I had been out of the public school classroom while pursuing my Ph.D. in Social Studies Education, I was losing legitimacy in the eyes of my students. I heard myself say in class more than once statements like, "A few years ago when I used this strategy . . ." or, "This behavior management technique used to be very effective for me . . . " and although these stories and examples were still personally very vivid, I felt I was becoming a theorist – and I wanted to be a practitioner! I longed to be able to say confidently, "Yesterday, this is what I tried and it worked!"

So, this past summer, I pursued an idea until it came to fruition – to undertake my teaching responsibilities at UVA as well as to teach one class of United States history at Charlottesville High School where I taught for seven years prior to my graduate work and my appointment to the Curry faculty. I stressed my desire to maintain an authentic connection to actual classroom teaching as I attempted to inspire, educate, and mentor the students enrolled in my courses for reasons from exploration of the profession to working toward licensure. I was confident my students would greatly benefit from this kind of contact with an actual classroom, but I had no idea of the extensive impact my teaching one class at the high school could have outside of my immediate responsibilities to the Teachers for a New Era grant and my students, both at UVA and at Charlottesville High School.

From day one of this unique partnership, I became a resource for teachers at the high school. I was asked things such as, "Erika, you teach behavior management. What would you do in this situation?" and "I am teaching the age of exploration tomorrow – do you have any good resources or teaching strategies?" I happily offered my content knowledge, my pedagogical expertise, and my past and current teaching experiences to novice and veteran teachers in all departments at the school. With a Master's Degree, endorsement, and experience in Administration and Supervision, requests came to me from the school administration and staff to observe teachers and offer constructive and friendly feedback in order to begin conversations about their instruction. I offered my services to the school because I believed it was the right thing to do – an authentic partnership between the University and the public schools. I felt like I truly was helping build a bridge between these two very different worlds.

As the school year has continued, this unique partnership has flourished in many ways. Many of my high school students, a large percentage who have a history of achieving below grade level, attend my University classes to serve as "student experts." This has provided these high school students an enormous sense of self-pride and has had a postive impact on their achievement in my classroom. Many of my UVA students have become mentors, tutors, or "big-siblings" to my high school students. This has also provided these college students access to the public school that otherwise would be unavailable to them since they are not enrolled in an actual teacher education program.

It is not uncommon to see my high school students participating in group work with my University students in my classes at the Curry School. Likewise, my class at Charlottesville High School is always full of guests – my colleagues from UVA and Charlottesville High School who are observing an aspect of my teaching, students from UVA either as observers or participators in the lesson, and the Social Studies Methods Professor from UVA who is conducting a study of my teaching practice. Just the other day, I walked through the media center of Charlottesville High School and observed Carrie from UVA tutoring Brittney from CHS in Geometry! These examples, just to name a few, are a continual inspiration to me for my work at both of my jobs.

In additional the classes I teach, I am also becoming an integral part of the school induction program at Charlottesville High School. I regularly work with teacher mentors as a content and pedagogy resource as well as volunteer to be observed by novice teachers and videotaped for use at new teacher training sessions. I team teach with history teachers at the high school, I observe teachers upon their request, and I serve as an informal mentor to novice and veteran teachers alike. But, for me, the most valuable thing is that I can put into practice what I teach my pre-service teachers about effective instruction. Because of this, I am revitalized as an educator and it is my 11th grade students who are benefiting the most from my crazy plan.

I am a professor, but I hope that I will always be able to be a high school teacher. It is these students who have always given me the most happiness, these students who have continually pushed me to be more creative in my classroom, and these students who have taught me the most about what good teaching looks like. Although admittedly, this idea was thought up selfishly so I would not lose touch with an actual classroom and students as I taught future teachers, this partnership has taken on a life and identity of its own.

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About the author

Erika Pierce, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She taught social studies at Charlottesville High School for 6 years prior to her going back to graduate school for her Ph.D. in Social Studies Education from the University of Virginia. Erika continues to teach high school while teaching courses in teacher education at the college level. She can be reached at elpp@virginia.edu.

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