The stage is clear except for a single podium down center. In Act 1, the teachers present their stories of how they entered into the profession allowing for some background information and developing each character. Each scene is titled using the participants’ own words summarizing how they started teaching.
Scene 1 – “oh my gosh I think I have found what I really was kinda meant to do”
Elizabeth enters stage right to address the audience. She is standing behind the podium with the stage lights highlighting her as she tells her story of how she entered the teaching profession. It is the fall of 1988 and another school year is ready to begin. Elizabeth excitedly prepares for her first year teaching six graders at an elementary school. She just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in teaching from a top university in the southeastern United States and is ready to enter the classroom.
ELIZABETH (speaks to the audience in an upbeat smiling voice) I began at Porter University
and had not declare a major did not know what I wanted to do um, and had that for my first year at Porter
I do not have one of those I’ve always wanted to be a teacher stories where the, you know, little girls grading papers and stuff that was not me at all I really didn’t know what I wanted to do um, I was kinda an average student in high school
um, I thought about being a veterinarian just I liked animals just things like that my second year at Porter I joined a sorority
I found a best friend very quickly and she said (Elizabeth laughs)
um, “it’s time to register for classes” and she said “what’s your major let’s take some classes together” and I said “I don’t have a major” and she said “well mine is education put down education” so I did that’s (Elizabeth laughs) not a very great way to pick a major
but I think my boyfriend at the time his parents were both educators
and I think we had been dating quite a while like from high school into college so I think I was around them enough and I think looking back they had sorta talked about that
but I never really said “wow that’s something I want to do”
and once I started taking education classes I was like “I love this”, I mean
I was average my first couple of years at Porter but I made A’s in every education class I took I loved it and I was like “I’m good at this, I really like this”
and so it’s not your typical “oh I’ve always wanted to be a teacher” but once I started those classes
and I know one of my professors maybe in one of my
um, I guess they call them like a practicum it wasn’t student teaching but where you would be with the teacher and just do some of the lessons I remember he said “you really you’re a natural teacher”
and I never had anyone tell me anything like that before and I think it just gave me that “oh my gosh I think I have found what I really
was kinda meant to do” so
I love telling my students, you know, how I became a teacher I said “not the best way to pick a major”
you know, I said “but I think there were things looming around me that maybe were sorta leading me there that I had in the back of my mind that I hadn’t thought about”, you know
but, um, yeah it’s kinda for me I always feel like, you know, I picked it because my friend picked it but we both, you know, we ended up both being teachers so it worked out (Interview 1)
Elizabeth exits stage left as the lights dim.
Scene 2 – “you know this could be what I really want to do”
Dee walks on stage right and presents her story behind the podium illuminated by the stage lights. She is eager to use what she learned in the private sector and the time spent in the pre- school program at her church to teach fourth graders at an elementary school.
DEE (speaks methodically to the audience)
Well that was not my goal in high school or when I left high school thinking I’m going to be a teacher that was probably the last thing I ever thought I would be
um, and then after a while working in the
professional, um, you know, world I did inventory control
then I was a flight attendant for five years and during that time I got married and then had children and
was fortunate enough not to have to go back to work and be able to stay home with my children um, I had the first one
and then when he became three, um, I got, um, involved in the pre-school program at our church and so
you had to volunteer so many times during the school year as the aid for that day that was called the co-op program and
so I really got to the point where I really enjoyed it and then when I had my second child being able to do it with her
and a position came open at the pre-school and they asked if I would be willing to take it
so I did and in the meantime began to think “you know this could be what I really want to do” so I was able to go back to school at night and teach at the pre-school during the day and get my teaching degree
and so I graduated and immediately got a job but I was at the elementary level (Interview 1)
Dee exits stage left and the lights dim.
Scene 3 – “ok go teach it now”
Theresa walks on stage right as the lights slowly come on highlighting the podium where she also tells her story of how she became a teacher. It is late August or early September; Theresa is looking through the newspaper for a job. She just finished her degree and moved down to the South. She is waiting to go to medical school in order to become an optometrist. School has already begun.
THERESA (speaks to the audience in her southern accent) Ok I originally went to
undergraduate school to be an optometrist so I did pre-med
the science, the math, and some of the computer science classes and then as soon as I (Theresa laughs) graduated
I got married and we moved down south just to be somewhere different and
I didn’t automatically go to optometry school so I was looking for a job and it was September
or late August and
I was just looking through the newspaper and it said they still needed a math teacher at Green High School and, um
so I was like “school’s already started” (Theresa laughs)
so I called the phone number and the principal was like “can you come right now” and I said “I’m in street clothes” and he said “it’s ok come right now”
and I came and I was sitting down on the couch and he walked by me a couple of times and finally the secretary was like
“she’s here for the job” and he’s like “oh my gosh I (Theresa laughs) thought she was a student”
and so, um (Theresa pauses)
he said “can you start tomorrow” and I didn’t have the education part I just had a math degree through my pre-med
my school that I went to didn’t actually have a pre-med it just
you took your math and your science classes and I had enough to have a math degree so I said “ok”
and he said they would put me in the TAPP28 program
so that next like Monday I think I started the TAPP program and two weeks later I started teaching there so I was just kinda thrown in it, um
there was no like
here, you know, teach, you know, student teaching or anything it was just “ok go teach it now” (Interview 1)
Theresa exits the stage left as the lights dim.
Scene 4 – “ok let me be an educator”
It is the fall of 2003, and Jacqueline excitedly sets up her classroom. She has just graduated with a degree in mathematics teaching and anxiously awaits the bell to release students to her first period class. Jacqueline walks quickly to the podium stage right to address the audience in order to tell her story of how she became a teacher.
JACQUELINE (voice trembles with nervous excitement) I’m the one that played school
I’d do the practice worksheets and my teachers would give me things but going into college my um, major was computer science
I’m like “I don’t know why I don’t even know why I picked computer science” and then the first semester I took a computer science class I’m like “Oh No”
I was good at math so I was like “ok let me be an educator” so
just like Elizabeth I was like “Oh Wow I really like this” and I was born to teach looking back on all of the things (Jacqueline laughs)(Interview 1 with Elizabeth)
The lights go out as Jacqueline stays behind the podium.