When August rolls around and summer winds to an end, students here at Providence Academy wait in anticipation to receive their schedule, curious to see who their teachers are and what classes they have.
For most teachers, there is not much diversity from year to year. They teach the same classes and the same grades with the only difference usually being the time of day they teach. But for several high school teachers this year, their schedules look completely different. Mr. Kevin Keiser, Ms. Angela Lambert and Mr. Ian Skemp are teaching different subjects and grades this year.
Mr. Skemp, a history teacher, went from teaching juniors year two of American history to teaching the senior history course. Mr. Keiser, also a history teacher, now teaches religion to seniors. Both teachers received notice of their transfer at the beginning of the summer.
Which, Mr. Keiser said was,“plenty of time since I had the whole summer to prepare.”
A summer of preparation, however, did not take away some of the challenges these two teachers faced teaching a new class to a new level of students. Mr. Keiser’s transition from history to religion proved to be more difficult because of the different teaching styles required to teach each subject.
“History is far more narrative and fact-oriented, whereas theology is much more conceptual,” Mr. Keiser explained.
Mr. Skemp cited content as the biggest challenge.
He said, “if I have to teach it, I have to know it. My degrees are in history, but I never focused on Medieval-Enlightenment Europe. I know a bit about the 19th century from my art history classes, but overall, my background in this time period is pedestrian.”
Mr. Keiser has a Masters in Thomistic Studies and a License in Moral Theology from the Angelicum in Rome, but this will be his first time teaching high school theology, which he really enjoys teaching.
Ms. Angela Lambert will teach 6th and 9th grade students religion after teaching mainly upperclassmen. Ms. Lambert finds teaching a new class to be a fun experience.
“Each grade level and curriculum focus offers its own unique opportunities,” said Ms. Lambert.
She said there are some challenges with, “familiarizing oneself with the curriculum and preparing lectures, assessments, projects, etc.”
This year, all three teachers as well as their students will have a fun year getting to know each other in a new setting.
Knowing that, as Ms. Lambert said, “ God intends for us to spend the school year together learning from one another.”