September 24/25 AVATAR SHS ART & LITERARY ONLINE PUBLICATION

Meeting Ms. Flick

Sanaa Khandakani

1. What made me interested in teaching, specifically English?

I think for most of my life I knew I wanted to be a teacher. When I think back on my childhood, I have vivid memories of making my younger siblings & their friends play "school" during summer vacation. I know this sounds silly, but I genuinely put my heart and soul into creating "lesson plans" for my "students". These plans included handwriting alphabet skills, simple math (like addition and subtraction), as well as even scheduling time for recess and "gym" (recess was outside and gym just meant we threw balls around in the basement).

Even though teaching has always seemed like the "right choice," for the longest time I thought that I would be a history teacher. The biggest reason for this is that I felt like my history teachers were more impactful to me than my English teachers were (which I feel is totally not typical for most people). When I went to orientation for BGSU, the man who was helping me schedule classes told me that this year "a lot of people want to be history teachers, are you sure it's what you want?" I told him it wasn't and then made the immediate switch to English. I'm not quite sure why I made the change, but honestly, there's not one second that goes by when I regret it. I get to share my passion for reading with my students and help them work on their verbal and written communication skills -- what could be better than this?

2. Explain my experience at Apollo Career Center.

Right out of college, I worked the first two years of my career at Apollo Career Center. I was really excited about this opportunity because I did not have experience in a career technical school, and I was nervous (but excited) to learn how to manage the highs and lows that come with teaching this population of students. I was really lucky -- I was one of three BGSU English teacher hire-ins my first year, meaning that I got hired alongside two of my BGSU peers who I had gotten to know throughout our time at BGSU. While at Apollo, I worked closely with members of my English department to change and modify the existing curriculum to make it engaging to my students. I also was able to travel to the statewide and national English teacher conferences during my time there. This job taught me the importance of building strong connections with my students -- it is so much easier to help students learn when you take the time to get to know them.

There were several reasons why I knew Apollo was not a long-term career fit for me; so last spring I began the job search once again. I am so happy to have landed at Shawnee (even though it's right around the corner from where I've been). So far my experience here has been positive, and I have had a lot of fun getting to know my new students. I am so excited to see where this year takes us!

3. What do you enjoy reading and/or writing about?

I think my favorite part about being a teacher is that I always have an excuse to "learn something new". If the world was perfect and I only had to do the things I wanted, I would exclusively read Thriller/Mystery books -- I am currently a big fan of Riley Sager, Courtney Summers, and Charlie Donlea. However, something that I've been trying to push myself to do is read book genres outside of my normal type. I am always looking for recommendations!

As far as writing is concerned, I honestly do not write too often outside of what I have to write/create for my job. Personally, I've always preferred academic writing (think boring research essays or argumentative pieces). While this style of writing can be daunting for young writers, it follows a strategic formula that just makes sense in my brain. I know from my own educational experience, I've always detested creative writing because of how "hard" it seems for me. I really would rather write a formulaic academic writing piece than have the creative freedom to do what I want within the parameters of the story (which is credibility ironic given my involvement with JustWrite). I've always wanted to try to push myself to write creatively -- maybe the time to start is now!

4. What grades do you teach at Shawnee? How are you enjoying them so far?

This year I am teaching Advanced English 10 and English 12. I am enjoying both classes so far; I know it's early days, but I am very excited to work with all of my students this year!

5. Explain your involvement with JustWrite. How did you learn about the organization? What specifically does the organization do?

JustWrite is a nonprofit organization that I became involved with during my student teaching (Spring of 2022). Funnily enough, the reason I got involved was because my mentor teacher (the teacher I was assigned to be with during my teaching mentorship program) is one of the co-founders of the organization. This nonprofit aims to support literacy rates among teenagers, as well as encourage young adults to share their voices when it comes to creative writing. On the day of the competition, student writers compete in three back-to-back rounds in which they write to a specific literary genre and follow a unique prompt. For example, round 1 might be science fiction and the prompt could be "lost in the great unknown" -- incorporate this line into your story, and the other two rounds would be a new genre and a new creative prompt. Student writing is assessed based on a rubric (which is out of 700 points).

While I've never been a coach and taken a team of writers to a competition, I have traveled to conferences to promote JustWrite to other teachers, worked in the scoring room where I input all student writer scores into the system, have judged student writing, and have even facilitated student writer training during the day of the competition. I think the reason JustWrite is so important to me is because I've seen how some students can master their understanding of the written word and use it to help creatively promote their ideas. One day I hope to have a competitive team -- maybe this is something that Shawnee students (present or future) will enjoy!