High Schoolers Can Teach Too

At 18, Mr. Boyd is old. He wears a shirt with a collar, and shushes fourth-graders. He also knows how to spell and define every vocabulary word handed out in Room D6 at Lincoln Elementary School in San Bernardino.

“He is a grown-up,” said Maria Mendez, a curly-haired, wide-eyed 9-year-old who, like her classmates, occasionally gets stumped learning words such as “sunnier,” “heaviest” and “families.” “He is a teacher.”

Actually, he’s not. Mr. Boyd -- whom most refer to by his first name, Daniel -- is a senior at nearby San Bernardino High School who plays the guitar and wants to become a teacher.

Boyd is a seedling in the San Bernardino Unified School District’s one-year training class designed to “grow” students into teachers. Ideally, he’ll work for the 57,000-student school system one day. The program is also one of dozens statewide that seek to recruit and retain credentialed instructors, according to education experts.

Five years ago, there were few experience-based programs for students this young, said Kris Marubayashi, co-director of CalTeach, a Sacramento-based teacher referral and recruitment program run by the California State University system. Traditionally, aspiring teachers had to wait until their junior or senior year in college before assisting in classrooms.

Trying it out in high school “gives them a chance to see if teaching is right for them,” Marubayashi said, “or if they should get a new career.”

The 13 juniors and seniors in the program at San Bernardino High spend most of the year learning about career trends, education law, the teaching process and student learning styles.

During the final quarter, students intern in classrooms at the high school and surrounding elementary and middle school campuses, depending on their interests. The interns assist teachers, create bulletin board displays, develop lesson plans and instruct students.

“They step into the classrooms and they behave like teachers,” said Kerry Roberts, who oversees San Bernardino High’s teacher training class and helped introduce the program in 1996. “To the students, they are teachers.”

This is true even when the trainees are only two years older than their students. Benjamin Jimenez is 18, but his slightly younger peers in an honors social studies class at San Bernardino High still call him Mr. and Sir.

“Sometimes when I’m walking across the quad, a student will come up to me and say, ‘Are you one of the teachers?’ Parents will say, ‘Excuse me, sir.’ ”

Jimenez laughed but conceded that he likes it. Sometimes he calls students “my kids.”

The tall, spiky-haired teen appears mature. He listens before speaking, which he does softly and slowly. He wears button-down shirts and ties. When he signed up for the program, Jimenez said, he started saving money for a professional wardrobe.

“When I’m in the classroom, I act like a teacher, and I dress like a teacher should,” said Jimenez. “It’s key.”

The teacher Jimenez assists said his performance and demeanor surpass those of some college trainees.

“He comes better prepared than many of them did,” said Jan Ebey, a 35-year teaching veteran. “It’s amazing how far along he is.”

Many of the high school students come from low-income or troubled homes. That the students gain hope and excitement about their futures is perhaps the most significant benefit, Roberts said.

“They see possibility in themselves,” she said. “They get that spark.”

Kristina Quiel, 17, who plans to major in education at Cal State San Bernardino, feels at home in Sandi Holzberger’s morning kindergarten class at Lincoln Elementary School.

The pupils “ask me if I have a boyfriend,” she said, laughing. “They want to know so much about you.”

For Mackenzie Sargent, a 5-year-old with bright brown eyes, it’s been a pleasure. “Miss Q is nice to me,” she said. “She helps me do everything.”