Back to school — Q&A with Tom Biskup

  

Tom Biskup stocks bookshelves in his classroom at South
Portland’s James O. Kaler School of Inquiry and Exploration,
in preparation for his first day of work as a new teacher. 

SOUTH PORTLAND — Next week is not only back to school for students, it’s a return to form for teachers as well. At South Portland’s James O. Kaler School of Inquiry and Exploration, one new teacher is returning to his roots. While he went to Dyer Elementary rather than Kaler, Tom Biskup, 22, is a South Portland native and a member of the South Portland High School class of 2008. He beat out dozens of more experienced applicants for the job and took some time recently, while readying his first classroom, to talk about what he expects.

Q: Did you always want to be a teacher?

A: Actually, I went to Quinnipiac Universty, in Hamden, Conn., my first semester. I was a psychology major there and it just wasn’t a great fit for me.

Q: Why was that?

A: I went onto this college campus and there were absolutely no kids around and I had been used to being around kids forever. I transferred to the University of Maine at Orono to focus on elementary education, because I knew the education I personally would get there would be just as food as anywhere else.

Q: How does it feel to launch your teaching career in the district where you grew up as a student?

A: It was really weird. We just had staff orientation today and some of the principals and staff that were introduced there I had as teachers, or they taught in the school I attended. So, it’s a weird new relationship I now have with them. I don’t know if should call them Mr. and Mrs. still, or by their first name now.

Q: Where did you do your student teaching?

A: I did eight weeks at a small school in Dedham, Maine. Then I did a seven-week placement at Old Town Middle School.

Q: Did you purposefully choose to begin your teaching career here in your hometown?

A: It was sort of the first place that I went to apply. I’ve stayed close with some of the teachers here, and I have aunts who teach here, so I felt I knew a lot about the district and what’s its values are, which I think align closely with my own.

Q: Did you apply to Kaler specifically?

A: I applied for three or four jobs in South Portland and the first one I was interviewed for I was hired for, in the middle of June. There were two schools that I targeted, and one was Dyer, which was my old school. But the grade level I was offered here was a better fit for myself and also I support the vision of the school, with project-based learning.

Q: What to you like about that?

A: As a new teacher it’s so exciting, because it puts a lot on the students for what interests them and what they really want to explore that has a connection to them and their real life and the things they engage in. So, it’s not just learning in school. They actually see how what they learn relates to the real world and so, they are exciting to come to school every day for something that has meaning and relevance in their lives.

Q: It also involves hands-on learning, does it not?

A: There’s a whole inquiry process. The idea is that the answer is not “Google-able.” You start with a driving question and then from there the students can really take on the role of a community member, someone who might actually do that job. It’s involves a four to six weeks of working on a project and then the a final product is presented to a real-life audience who might be able to use it outside of the classroom, or even the city of South Portland.

Q: What is so important about project-based learning?

A: It’s a new way of thinking, of learning through a process and tying it all to how what they do is gong to benefit them for years and years after they get out of Kaler and the South Portland School Department. It’s so much more than just sitting there memorizing something because you have to but not seeing the connections with the real life part.

Q: Do you with such a method had been in use when you were in elementary school?

A: I think a lot of times as a student you feel like you are just jumping through hoops because the school is assessing what they think you should know, but you don’t necessarily forecast it out to how that’s going to be beneficial to you in the future. So I think it’s great that Kaler is in the second year of doing this, because I think kids can see the relevance of what they are learning more clearly.

Q: Have you thought about what your class’ project will be?

A: Yes. It won’t be as simple as just repeating what someone did last year because I’ll have a mixed class. I’ll have 10 third-graders and 11 fourth-graders.

Q: How is it that you have a mixed-age class?

A: Something South Portland as a district is looking to is flexible grouping. In that, you are not necessarily in a grade because of your age. You’re in a more flexible group where we want to match our instruction to what you need to know and your skill set. So, there’s not the repetition that a lot of other school might find.

Q: How does flexible grouping help the student?

A: For example, if you move up a grade you could end up bored, frankly, if you’re being asked to learn things you’ve already mastered. Flexible grouping really targets a student’s instruction to what they need to know, rather than lumping everyone into an age group.

Q: Did you ever find yourself getting bored when you were a student?

A: I feel like I lucked out. I had the best teachers from kindergarten up to senior year. I feel like each one did the best they could to practice what we now call flexible grouping. What was missing out then that is sort of coming of age now is that it’s not just individual teachers doing it, it’s collaboration among all students across an age span. I think on this large-scale basis it’s going to help a greater range of students.

Q: With your first day right around the corner, are you nervous at all?

A: I have a wide range of feelings. I’m excited for sure. I have a great opportunity at a great school that is really trying new things that have been researched and proven but are new to the area. That generates a lot of excitement.

Q: Are you at all afraid you’ll get a few weeks in and discover this job is not for you?

A: No, I think I’m set. No backing out. Ever since second or third grade I’ve volunteered in classes below me. I worked as a rec camp councilor for eight or nine years. So, I’ve always been around students and I’ve learned different techniques to deal with different types of kids. I feel as good as I can as a new teacher. If I was going to feel wary, it would have happened by now.

Q: What do you enjoy about teaching, and working with youngsters?

A: I just love that every day is a challenge, that every day something is going to come up that you get to problem solve as part of a group, with other teachers, or students, or any collective group of people. It’s all about building relationships and having that constant feedback, back and forth.

Q: What sense of responsibility do you feel, knowing the impact you’re going to have on students, maybe for the rest of their lives?

A: I think you can look at it two ways. You can be scared to death and say I don’t want to mess up somebody else’s kid, or you can look at it as, I have a great opportunity to positively impact each student, not only academically, but as a community members and a participating citizen. It is definitely something that is a big deal, because this is an age for kids when so many of their future habits are being developed. You just have to treat each student to his or her needs.

Q: Have you thought about what will happen of you end up with that one “problem child?”

A: I think it just comes down to is building that relationship from Day 1 and letting them know that you are an ally, and that you want the best for them, and being open to communicating with their parents or guardian, and creating a support system to all the available resources, to try your best to see what’s going to work

Q: Did you have a favorite teacher who you’d hope to model yourself on?

A: Patsy Roberts was my fourth-grade teacher at Dyer Elementary School. She still works in the district as a literacy specialist. I think her being so active and involved in my life, it meant a lot to know that a teacher really cares about you. It’s so special to still have her as a mentor and friend today.