I think the majority will agree that we’ve all had student teachers in our classes before. I personally have had them as early as fourth grade. Of course, some were definitely nicer than others, but I never really paid much attention to them. As I got older and more sentient however, I realized that student teachers are actually really cool people! In my freshman year, we had Mr T. in Mr. Izzi’s Western Civilization class, and I can’t remember a single class where it wasn’t fun or where I didn’t have a great time laughing with both him and the rest of my class. Even now, if I bring him up to my former classmates, they would remember him and his gecko. Student teachers bring a new refreshing and fun feeling into the classrooms, and have bright personalities and ideas that break up the stiff routine a lot of both students and teachers are so used to by now.
Coming to the realization that student teachers are an incredible experience for both them and us as students led me to interview Ms. Tomao, one of NPHS’ student teachers who has taken on the role of head teacher for three of Mr. Gianfrancesco’s CP IV English classes.
When asked to introduce herself, she said:
“Hi! My name is Ms. Rebecca Tomao and I am a 2025 graduating senior from Rhode Island College. I am from Smithfield, RI, and am a 2021 high school graduate from La Salle Academy and have lived in Providence ever since. I love to read, specifically mysteries, gothic literature, and graphic novels. I love to write, but I don’t write anything too specific. I currently do a few different types of yoga and love going hiking. I have been working at the same restaurant for 2 years and love it. I played soccer for 15 years and ran track for 4.”
Something I love to ask people with occupations is why they chose to do what they do. There’s millions of jobs and passions to pursue in the world, and yet you chose this one. So naturally, I asked Ms. Tomao about her motivations behind pursuing a career in teaching, and got a very fascinating answer:
“Secondary Education English was not my first major in college. I went into RIC as a radiology technician major. I loved science in high school, I had taken 5 sciences to prepare myself for college because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. At least that is what I thought! As I sat in those classes I began to think about how these science professors were treating their students. Although I was not and am not planning to become a professor, I began to think about how my teachers were in high school. Whether or not they guided me in becoming a successful student by the time I got to college. As a teacher, I strive for all students to be included and to create an environment for them to feel comfortable and to be as successful as possible, and that is not how I felt in those classes. Granted they were for college, but my teachers in high school weren’t really any different.”
Her answer really resonated with me, because I’ve felt a very similar way to her before for years on end, especially during middle school. I didn’t like many of my teachers because of the way that they taught or due to their lack of passion towards teaching, and for a long time I always thought about becoming a teacher just to spite them in a way, to prove I could do better than them or that it’s a job that can be fun and fulfilling and that they were just bad at it.
Speaking as a high school student, I’ve always been very curious about the process of becoming a student teacher and what it takes to get through college. Ms Tomao was happy to share her struggles of trying to balance the arduous workload of the required schooling and essentially having two jobs:
“Becoming a teacher and just being a college student in general is a lot of hard work and dedication to the things that you want to accomplish. There have been many, many tears and crash outs over the past 4 years, college is not easy. As soon as Gen-Eds were over, it felt like I had been hit by a bus. I began taking classes that were geared towards my major and field, and they meant all business. This was the point where I became the busiest. I was taking English class after English class, taking education classes, and having to do a certain amount of hours at a different school every semester on top of classes. On top of all of that, I worked at the restaurant I am currently working at and began working at RIC for the athletic department. I was, and still am, very busy.”
She continues by saying that being at NPHS and only having a singular class on Tuesdays for RIC “might seem like nothing to you, but the experience is very new and nerve wracking.” Additionally, she feared being disliked or resented by students (as if! Pretty much everyone I know that knows her either absolutely loves her or has an actual crush on her!) and had a lot of anxiety over if she would perform well or not in the teacher role. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we’re all very proud of her for finally mustering up the courage to stand at the door to greet students after two months!
In all of her answers to my questions, I can see that Ms. Tomao is incredibly passionate in what she wants to do, and is not too different from us in how she struggles with balancing a job with schooling, and faces worries and anxieties. My absolute favorite teachers are the ones that clearly have a love for teaching and what they teach, and I can tell through her feelings about being an educator Ms. Tomao will continue to be so incredibly beloved by her students in the future!
By tomorrow, May 9th, Ms. Tomao will have to have finished a 30+ page unit plan as a result of her learning from her time spent with us in class at NPHS. From all of us here both at the Cougar Courier and at NPHS as a whole, we wish you the best of luck, and I personally have loved having you in our meetings!
