Students Become Teachers

As summer begins, the Brendan Court ’06 Summer Enrichment Program has been in full swing. Throughout June, rising seventh and eighth graders from local schools will learn math, science, English, and social studies. Instructing them are St. Mark’s students, some of whom are teaching in the very same classrooms where they learn as students during the school year.

 

“The sudden shift from being a student to directing a class made me realize what a teacher really wants in a student,” said Shailen Parmar ’17, St. Mark’s incoming Senior Class President and an English teacher in the Program. “Teaching has been an eye-opening experience for me, and I definitely have a newfound respect for all St. Mark's teachers."

 

For more than two decades, this tuition-free program has provided both a summer activity for local youth and an invaluable volunteer experience for Upper School Marksmen. The Program has advanced St. Mark’s mission of outreach to the Dallas community under program director and St. Mark’s English teacher Curtis Smith. This year, the Program is transitioning leadership to Jorge Correa, St. Mark’s Director of Community Service, and Isabel Toledo, St. Mark’s Spanish teacher.

 

“Curtis has made teachers out of students,” Mr. Correa said. “Many Marksmen have gained teaching experience thanks to him. He teaches them curriculum, how to make lesson plans, and how to utilize the materials.”

 

While the Program may appear to be for the benefit of its students, Curtis and the new Directors know that the volunteer teachers learn just as much as their students.

 

“Curtis selected all these students from St. Mark’s. They are boys who have never taught before, and he puts them in small classes and gives them feedback,” Ms. Toledo said. “The boys receive important feedback — things they did well, things they could work on. Sometimes this is their first experience as teachers and they turn out to be great educators.”