Samantha Scherer
Q: What subject do you teach?
A: I teach English as a Second Language (ESL). I teach kids from China, Honduras, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. It’s a great mixture and that’s what I love about it. I love other cultures, I love languages, I love people, and I love learning about other people. I love to travel and I really appreciate that about them. I appreciate the differences and I hope that they see that they have a power by being bilingual. It’s a great power to have. You also become sort of a mentor or a friend. Being new to a country and being new to a school can be sort of scary. And not knowing the language? Even scarier. So you end up helping these students a lot more and end up giving advice to them, kind of mothering them in a sense. It’s a really great feeling knowing that you’re helping them on so many different levels.
Q: Did you teach at a school before coming to Germantown?
A: My experience with teaching goes back to community based organizations. I taught adults at a place in midtown called the DeNeuville Learning Center and it’s for women who are either refugees or immigrants who have come to the country…They want to learn English to make their lives better, not only for themselves but for their families. In order to navigate through life, in order to go to the bank, in order to go to the doctor, or find transportation. My teaching experience has mostly been through adults…but I also taught at a university in the Czech Republic…This is my first year teaching teenagers, teaching in a Shelby County school, and teaching in this kind of setting.
Q: So how do you think your experience with adults is going to affect how you teach your students?
A: Well it’s given me really great experience with just being in the classroom and working with people. With working with people, it can make you kind of nervous. You constantly have to be prepared to answer people’s questions, to know how to properly direct them, even redirect them. Redirect their thinking. You always want to try to come up with ways to make the material interesting or what they care about the most. You try to find ways to get their needs met…The experience with working with adults and just people in general helped me transition into this position.
Q: How do you like Germantown so far?
A: Anytime I need help or I’m working with other teachers, they’re very willing and patient. They want to help their students, too. So the relationships that they’re able to have help these students master the concepts and be successful in their classes. My relationship with teachers has been really great, really positive, and we work well with each other to try to get the best experience for the students.
Q: What was your teaching inspiration?
A: Yes, there are actually two. Both happened to be in college. One was my professor, Tom, who was a theatre teacher of mine. He had this great spirit about him. He was someone who was incredibly creative and knew how to make the classroom experience a great experience. Something that made you think from difference perspectives. It really opened up your mind, and I really appreciated that about him. The second was teacher was Dr. Charles Hall. He was the teacher that really changed my life. He got me into the English department going into ESL. I saw a flyer that said, “Go teach in the Czech Republic!” and I thought I would love to go abroad and teach. I had one conversation with him in the afternoon and it completely changed my major and what I was doing. He had great energy and was a dynamic person and I’ve learned a lot by just observing him and having him as a teacher.
Q: What subject do you teach?
A: I teach English as a Second Language (ESL). I teach kids from China, Honduras, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. It’s a great mixture and that’s what I love about it. I love other cultures, I love languages, I love people, and I love learning about other people. I love to travel and I really appreciate that about them. I appreciate the differences and I hope that they see that they have a power by being bilingual. It’s a great power to have. You also become sort of a mentor or a friend. Being new to a country and being new to a school can be sort of scary. And not knowing the language? Even scarier. So you end up helping these students a lot more and end up giving advice to them, kind of mothering them in a sense. It’s a really great feeling knowing that you’re helping them on so many different levels.
Q: Did you teach at a school before coming to Germantown?
A: My experience with teaching goes back to community based organizations. I taught adults at a place in midtown called the DeNeuville Learning Center and it’s for women who are either refugees or immigrants who have come to the country…They want to learn English to make their lives better, not only for themselves but for their families. In order to navigate through life, in order to go to the bank, in order to go to the doctor, or find transportation. My teaching experience has mostly been through adults…but I also taught at a university in the Czech Republic…This is my first year teaching teenagers, teaching in a Shelby County school, and teaching in this kind of setting.
Q: So how do you think your experience with adults is going to affect how you teach your students?
A: Well it’s given me really great experience with just being in the classroom and working with people. With working with people, it can make you kind of nervous. You constantly have to be prepared to answer people’s questions, to know how to properly direct them, even redirect them. Redirect their thinking. You always want to try to come up with ways to make the material interesting or what they care about the most. You try to find ways to get their needs met…The experience with working with adults and just people in general helped me transition into this position.
Q: How do you like Germantown so far?
A: Anytime I need help or I’m working with other teachers, they’re very willing and patient. They want to help their students, too. So the relationships that they’re able to have help these students master the concepts and be successful in their classes. My relationship with teachers has been really great, really positive, and we work well with each other to try to get the best experience for the students.
Q: What was your teaching inspiration?
A: Yes, there are actually two. Both happened to be in college. One was my professor, Tom, who was a theatre teacher of mine. He had this great spirit about him. He was someone who was incredibly creative and knew how to make the classroom experience a great experience. Something that made you think from difference perspectives. It really opened up your mind, and I really appreciated that about him. The second was teacher was Dr. Charles Hall. He was the teacher that really changed my life. He got me into the English department going into ESL. I saw a flyer that said, “Go teach in the Czech Republic!” and I thought I would love to go abroad and teach. I had one conversation with him in the afternoon and it completely changed my major and what I was doing. He had great energy and was a dynamic person and I’ve learned a lot by just observing him and having him as a teacher.