If a parent asks a high school student what they want for dinner, there’s a high probability that student is going to respond with some form of “I don’t know.” Ask them what they will be doing in two years, or six years down the road, and you might hear crickets, followed by another “I don’t know.”
We found an exception at West Noble High School, as junior Jenna Coburn not only knows what she wants to do in a year, but also in five years.
“I wanted to be a photographer, and nothing else, up through my sophomore year,” admitted Coburn, hands flat on the table in the high school main office. “When we were planning for my junior year schedule, I had a change of heart. It’s been a year. We were looking through options for junior year and I saw the teaching option via pathways and I was like, ‘you know what, I’ve been teaching dance since I was 12, and I found myself enjoying teaching. Little kids are right up my alley.”
From there, Coburn listed ‘patience and being able to adjust’ as two traits she leans on in her personal life. Ask any teacher, those two elements are tested on an hourly basis in the classroom. Coburn wasn’t phased at all by those pressures, and after finishing the Principles of Teaching course with Charles Grady, Coburn had made up her mind once again.
But what is setting Coburn apart from other people her age is her experiences. Coburn has been working as a Cadet Teacher through the Junior Achievement program, and recently began going back into her old stomping grounds at West Noble Elementary.
Citing an influence from her third grade teacher, Chanelle Hawkey, Coburn zeroed in on the grade level, then started teaching in her building. While she wasn’t cadet teaching third grade, Coburn was leading instruction in Jill Grady’s fourth grade classroom as if she owned the place. Keep in mind, Coburn is a junior in high school.
“Jenna is definitely going to become a teacher and she has taken the class seriously,” Charles Grady said. “She did an excellent job. (Mrs. Grady’s) students look forward to the lessons from her.”
Coburn will continue to shift her focus to the classroom teaching build as she preps for her senior year, and hopes to find an avenue to cadet with Hawkey if the opportunity presents itself. Looking to then take the next steps in college of getting an elementary education degree with a psychology minor, Coburn can see the path, and is embracing the walk.
Offered Coburn of her mindset in this process, “I started off a lesson a couple weeks ago (in March), where I said, ‘all I ask is kindness in return’. I’m still learning just as you are. I want them to know that I am a student just as much as they are, but I also want that respect as a teacher should get.”