Even if students think they aren’t going to use Spanish in the future, they are going to do difficult things, new Spanish I teacher Michael Sheehan explained.
Sheehan, who previously was teaching students as young as preschool in Massachusetts and also has experience in Jersey’s Bergen County, decided to make a drastic change in coming to West Essex. He said he’s eager to begin this new chapter of his teaching career and he hopes to guide his new students through difficult tasks, both academically and personally. His motivation and excitement to teach at a higher level, both in a brand new school system and state, stems from the pleasure he is granted after seeing his students tackle tough challenges.
“I’m excited about getting students to get excited about doing something difficult because learning a language is difficult,” Sheehan said.
While he is aware that many students may not need Spanish for their future careers, Sheehan says that meeting the steep goal of picking up a new language is something that can help them learn to overcome the many obstacles they may face in life.
“Teaching students is amazing,” Sheehan said. “It’s really like passing on the baton of learning, or sharing the light of learning with somebody else.”
Some of Sheehan’s favorite moments when teaching, he said, are when he sees that lightbulb go off in his students’ heads. He loves to see them finally understand something they’ve been working towards and then be able to teach their peers. Another thing he enjoys seeing in his students is their school spirit. He said West Essex students have a huge amount of enthusiasm for spirit days and said he loves to see them all dressed up in colors at events both in school and after school, which he attends.
Going into this new school with excitement, he loves seeing the opportunities and challenges he can give the kids. He was surrounded by Spanish speakers growing up, which enhanced his desire to teach Spanish. Going into his career, he wanted to incorporate how energetic and kind his past Spanish teachers were. He hopes to carry on his past teachers’ legacies and that his students come to his class with excitement instead of dread.
“I think I realized when I was actually in school, how important it is to be a teacher,” Sheehan said, “and then I thought about my own Spanish teachers and how good they were and how much fun we can have.”