(Student) Teacher Aides in Medfield

By Jared Weinstein

If your goal in life was to become a teacher would you take the opportunity to start achieving your goal in high school? Thankfully Medfield High School has a fantastic teacher aide program available to juniors and seniors. The program was started in the early 1990s and has been active ever since. The program is a half-year course and the students receive half the credits of a regular course. Because the program counts as a class, the students receive a grade. To determine the grade, the teacher keeps a rubric on the student while the student keeps a day-to-day journal

I interviewed the current head of the teacher aide program, Ms. Nunes, and she gave me some very insightful information about the program. She told me that once the students are put into the teacher aide program, they can either ask a teacher if they can teacher aide for them, or choose a teacher that has requested one. There is no restriction on who the student can teacher aide for, allowing students to help their favorite teacher, or in a class that they would hope to teach in the future.

During their time as an aide the students ideally just observe, plan lessons with the teacher, and eventually build their way up to teaching the class a lesson of their choosing. This is a great opportunity for students and will help them gain confidence in controlling a class, build their public speaking skills, and decide if they would like to continue on the route of becoming a teacher.

One student in the program, junior Thomas Stephenson, has loved his experience this year. He is aiding one of his favorite teachers, Ms. Sabra, and said that the program does not increase stress in his daily school day and that it’s fun to have a leadership position in the class. It provides a much needed break during the school day where he happens to be doing some of the teaching, instead of being taught. He recommends the program to all students who have the option to take it.

This semester at Medfield, Stephenson was one of 33 students who participated in the program and aided at schools all around Medfield. Twenty-four Students aided for high school teachers, six students aided for Blake Middle School, two aided at Memorial, and one aided at Dale. The program hopes to continue to grow in size and provide a memorable learning experience for students at Medfield High School!

This article was written by Jared Weinstein, a Medfield High School student and member of the student newspaper, The Kingsbury Chronicle. The piece is part of Medfield Patch's weekly series, "Warrior Weekly," helping provide information about MHS to the local community.