The Cupertino Courier

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Photograph by Kevin White

Kameko Oshiro, a fifth-grader at Nimitz Elementary School, helps her father, Steve Oshiro, set up his classroom. Oshiro left a 20-year career in the private sector to become a teacher.

Program helps new teachers adjust

By ERIN HUSSEY

"We are going to begin today with a story," said teacher Brandi Hucko to a classroom full of new faces.

" 'Sarah, dear, time to get out of bed," Mr. Hartwell intoned, poking his head out through the bedroom door way,' " Hucko read aloud in a low voice.

"'I don't know anybody, and it will be hard,' Sarah said," responded Hucko in a squeaky whine to an audience of rapt upturned faces, enthralled by the story, "First Day Jitters," by Julie Danneberg and Judith Dufour Love.

But when Hucko reached the last page and read, " 'Class, I would like to introduce you to your new teacher, Mrs. Sarah Jane Hartwell,'" the silence broke and 28 first-year teachers from the Cupertino Union School District started laughing.

"When I first started teaching, I was in the middle of two veteran teachers who did their own thing, and I basically had to figure everything out by myself," said Hucko, who acts as a supports resource instructor for new CUSD teachers..

"They would leave at 3:30 while I stayed and tried to figure out my lesson plans until 6 p.m."

In 1988, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program was created to eliminate situations like Hucko's and provide a more welcoming and supportive environment for beginning teachers.

"It's good to have a buddy," Hucko said.

"You wouldn't necessarily think so, but teaching can feel isolating. You're in your own classroom, no one else is in there with you, and you want to look like you know what you're doing so you might not ask the veteran teachers questions."

BTSA's main goal is to provide an effective transition into the teaching career for first- and second-year teachers through individualized support and assessment and additional training sessions. All new CUSD teachers will have their own BTSA mentor who they can turn to and talk about teaching techniques, report cards, parents, students, principals and anything else they might have concerns about. Most importantly, everything will remain confidential and will not affect their job.

"I've had teachers call me crying over the weekend," Hucko said. "It's about having a friend you can go to and trust. It is invaluable."

Steve Oshiro is a beginning third-grade teacher at Nimitz Elementary School who will teach an English language development class.

But unlike many of the younger faces in the room, this is not Oshiro's first job.

"I was an engineer at Lockheed Martin for over 20 years and got my credential while I was still working," Oshiro said.

"I went to night school and it took me four years."

Oshiro knew he wanted to become a teacher after volunteering many times in his children's classes at Nimitz.

"I loved working with the kids and the joy it brought me to watch them learn," he said.

He is still nervous, knowing teaching will be very different from his job at Lockheed.

"There are fears but also excitement going into this unknown territory," he said.

"Some students may not speak any English and we have to start building a community and making that work. Hopefully there will be other kids in the class that are bilingual and can help me out."

There are 21 primary languages other than English spoken by students and families of Nimitz. Oshiro does know some Japanese, but like all teachers at Nimitz, will be teaching in English and focusing on literacy.

As Oshiro prepares for his first day in the classroom, he will build on what he has learned from the BTSA induction program as well as his first day of school as a child.

"All I can remember is that I made a good friend with this kid named Gordon," Oshiro said.

"He and I were paired up together ,and it made everything easier. I want to make a similar buddy system. I don't want the students to feel like they are by themselves or isolated. Just like this program, I want them to know they have support and share the same feelings."