Year I students signing up for spring semester classes were greeted with a surprise! For the first time in her career, Elizabeth Poreba will be teaching a section of Year I seminar. Ms. Poreba is usually a 9th and 10th grade English teacher but when she discovered that a new section of first year seminar was being created, she volunteered to teach the class.  The new section should significantly reduce class sizes for the seminar courses and provide a better overall learning experience.

Ms. Poreba is especially curious to see how reading the Greek tragedies, Dante’s Inferno and other works last semester, has affected her students.  Since many of the students in her seminar class were also in her class in 9^th grade, she is eager to see how they have developed.  She remarks, “kids entered the school without much experience writing essays or analyzing complex texts.  Teaching seminar will give me a chance to see how they have grown.”

While teaching 9^th and 10^th grade, Ms. Poreba is responsible for preparing her students for the college program.  For the first time, she will get to teach at the level she has been preparing the younger students for.

Ms. Poreba was careful to emphasize that her seminar will be a rigorous college course. She was concerned that students would sign up for her seminar assuming that it would be just like her 9th grade class.

The course will be challenging for her as well. Her main difficulty, she says, will be to slow down and take her time teaching the texts. “Students sometimes complain that I go through the material too fast,” she explained.  She sees seminar as an opportunity to challenge herself and take her time.

Unlike her high school English classes, seminar gives her a chance to present classic works of literature in a more well rounded setting.  Combining elements of English, philosophy, and history, seminar allows teachers to move beyond the confines of a regular English class.  Ms. Poreba is most looking forward to teaching Hamlet and is enthusiastic about using diverse materials to accompany the required texts. She plans to include paintings, poetry, and even music to enrich the course.

Ms. Poreba will undoubtedly bring a fresh perspective to Year I seminar.  Those in her class have much to look forward to.

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