Logan's Interview

The teacher has been teaching at South Aiken High School for 15 years. They feel that rules have become more lenient and students are less accountable. They enjoy laughing with students and seeing them have "light bulb" moments. The teacher decided to teach at South Aiken because they liked the area. Power hour and wind time started six or seven years after the teacher began teaching. The teacher doesn't remember their first day but recalls feeling overwhelmed. They like having laptops but there can be frustrations. The building has had some changes, such as a new fence and renovations in the library and commons. The teacher has changed classrooms. Dress style has changed over the years. Teaching has changed since COVID, with more reliance on computers and online platforms. Okay, so, how long have you been teaching at South Aiken High School? 15 years, this is my 16th year. Has anything changed since your first year teaching? I think that rules have gotten more lenient and students are not held quite as accountable probably. There didn't used to be credit recovery when I first started here and there didn't used to be retakes when I first started here. What is the best part you look for during the day? I think that I look forward to laughing with students when they say funny things or laughing together as a class. Or when they get excited about that they get something that they've had trouble with before and they finally get it. They have that light bulb moment so that's what I look forward to in the day. Why did you decide to start teaching at South Aiken High School? Well, I taught three years in Ohio first because that's where I'm from and then my family moved to South Carolina and I got tired of being in the cold and the snow and went so far away from them and so I moved down here. And I really liked Aiken when I was looking around the state and I thought it was quaint and it felt like home and so it seemed like South Aiken would be a good fit back in 2008. When you first started teaching was there a power hour wind time when you were here? There was not. I think we only had power hour and wind for six or seven years maybe. So what did you have before it started being a thing? I think they had like three lunches I think if I remember correctly and then maybe the second lunch was broken up so you would go to class for part of the time and then lunch and then maybe back to class for a few minutes. It was a little bit different. So that's been going on for a while then. You can. Do you remember your first day here? Honestly no. It was so long ago but I'm sure I was nervous and I remember that I had a fourth period class which was right before lunch and there were like over 30 kids in the class and it was crazy so I'm sure I was a little bit overwhelmed at that point. I just moved here from Ohio so I was just kind of overwhelmed in general but that was probably what stuck out. Is it better having laptops or no? That's a good question. I like having the laptops and it means less copying, making copies sometimes for teachers but it also can be frustrating with students who don't bring them or forget their chargers or their computer's dead or things like that or they have computer problems and they have to go to the library to take a class kind of like that. But I do like that you can do a lot of things on the computer. Look up things and do projects on the computer. From what you can remember, is there something different physically about the building that wasn't there when you were a student or before when you started teaching? The fence outside is pretty recent I think. The one in the senior lot? Yeah, that's new. Yeah, and they've done work in the library and fixed that up a little bit. Oh, and in the 100 Hall, the floors used to be carpeted and they put tiles down in there and so they had to get vacuumed every day. The 300 Hall used to be portable but that was before I got here so I don't know if that counts or not. I think they did some work in the commons too, like the ceilings. They fixed the ceilings. Were you always in the same room? I was not. What was your first room? I was in 333 for the first half of my time here and then I moved to 133. What was Jesco like when you first started teaching? Well, it was a different style. It was a little bit different. It wasn't as big of a deal because that wasn't the style 15 years ago. Leggings were not as big of a thing. The shirts were not quite as short, I don't remember. And then boys' shorts have definitely become a lot shorter here lately. But a lot of bellies have come up. I think it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. It's definitely become a lot shorter here lately. But a lot of bellies have been starting to hang out. The boys' shorts? No, girls' shorts too. Oh, yeah. How was teaching before COVID? Can you compare it to now, before COVID? Yes. There are a lot of changes. We didn't have computers before COVID. We have to accept a lot more late work, it seems like now. There's a lot more, it seems like the, not the read-to-read text that was before COVID, but the print recovery has become a bigger thing after COVID. We put a lot more on Schoology and things like online platforms now. A lot more work is done online now as opposed to before. It was mostly just papers. So that's the biggest thing that I can think of. What did I say? You'll be like, yeah, I'm so excited to be here. I didn't know what I was supposed to say. We are here with Ms. Logan, our Spanish teacher here at Sullivan High School. Hi, everybody. I'm glad to be here. Thank you so much, Ms. Logan, for being here with us today. I'm glad to talk to you both.