Shared Experiences: Being a Student While Teaching Students

I am one of the old folks of HTF. Unlike many HTF’ers, I joined this program not during my senior spring of college, but as an alumnae. After two and a half years in the “real world,” I packed up my apartment, said goodbye to my roommates, friends, and family, and came back to a freezing cold Cambridge winter – something this California girl swore she would NEVER go through again.

Coming back to Harvard was a surreal experience. One of the most exciting things for me about joining HTF was the chance to be a student again.

Last time I was at Harvard, in my senior spring, I was done with school. I was done with writing papers, I was done with readings, I was done with the stress. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I stepped back on campus last January, and headed to T200 – my first HTF class.

This year, one of my favorite parts of taking classes while teaching (as overwhelming and exhausting that can be at times…) is bringing what I talked about the night before into my classroom.

I frequently tell my students – the wonderful, thoughtful, creative Project Lead the Way (PLTW) 10th graders at Oakland High – what went down in methods class the night before.

Students practicing presenting their Impact of the Cold War research projects and giving each other feedback. Glows and Grows go beyond HTF…

I tell my students how I changed today’s lesson plan last minute because I learned something new in class and all of a sudden realized what I could do better for them. I tell them how I too feel overwhelmed during finals period. How my organization skills are being put to the test just like theirs while trying to keep everything in life straight. How I deeply empathize with the struggle to get all the projects and papers in on time. How exciting it is when you learn about something totally new that completely changes your thinking. How fascinating it is to reflect on why we are learning history this way, and how different (or similar) that is to how people in other schools, cities, countries, and time periods might have learned about this exact same topic.

Being a student while teaching students is a unique, exhausting privilege.

Now, my to-do list for the rest of the night:

• Quick run to keep up with the self-care thing
• Prep for my coaching session with HTF mentor
• Finish lesson plan for tomorrow
• Grade the projects that students kicked butt on today before I post marking period grades
• Eat dinner, what’s in my fridge right now??
• Catch up on Ed Psych Blogs and start on paper

Oakland High celebrating its STATE CHAMPION Women’s Basketball Team on a sunny afternoon. Go Wildcats!

Molly Perlmutter is a Cohort 3 Fellow teaching 10th grade World History at Oakland High School in Oakland, CA. In her spare time, Molly can be found watching Liverpool games (this year is the year, folks), reading, and binge watching the TV shows her students recommend to her.  She believes history class is a chance for students to explore why the world around them is a certain way and develop as agents of change in that world.