Mid-year teachers face different challenges

Rider has three teachers who have to face and overcome the obstacles of coming in the middle of the year. They have all faced the same challenges but also different ones with the transition. 

Most students already have their opinions formed about a class around the first week of school, so the new teachers aren’t able to start with a “clean slate.” Science teachers Chaniqua Moses and Trevor Wildman had this issue at the start of the semester.

“You have kids who have sort of settled into a routine for an entire semester, and in my case, I inherited a group that had long-term subs,” Wildman said. 

Wildman and Moses are both from the Caribbean. Moses used to teach at a private school before she came to WFISD, and Wildman taught at a college. 

While English teacher Tami Davis and Wildman have worked in WFISD before, teachers like Moses, who hasn’t taught in the U.S., have to learn the U.S. education system.  

“It was very overwhelming in the first couple of months, but now I think I got it into a groove,” Moses said. “I’ve kind of come to know my students and become more familiar with them.”

Davis has had a slightly easier transition back into being a teacher.

“I was able to get back into the swing of things after being an administrator for a couple of years pretty easily, and that’s because there’s so much support around here,” Davis said.  “Everybody was so welcoming here and so nice and so wonderful that it was an easy transition.”

Both Moses and Davis have wanted to be an educator since they were children. However, Wildman never thought he would be a teacher, let alone be one for 29 years. When Wildman left the U.S. and moved back to the Caribbean, he believed he’d get into the science field.

“I thought when I was done with that first part, I’ll come out of university and I’ll have a path somewhere else, and I ended up back in teaching,” Wildman said. “I’m beginning to think that it’s probably my calling.”

Next year will be all three’s first full year at Rider. It’s something Davis is excited about for multiple reasons. 

“I’m looking forward to no hybrid learning and being able to see my kids’ faces,” Davis said.