Last December and January, our school had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Mary Peterson, a student at Keuka College in Keuka, New York where she studies American Sign Language (ASL).

Ms. Peterson has been considering becoming a teacher for the deaf community. At the suggestion of Kimberly Reid (AHS class of 2015, Keuka College class of 2019), she emailed the school and received permission to shadow Ms. Pflaumer (English) and Mrs. Maddalena (history), two teachers that Reid had also suggested. Ms. Peterson stayed with the Reid family while she completed her internship.

Ms. Peterson’s inspiration for learning ASL is very touching. “I’m doing it for my mom, because she is (hearing impaired). By the time I graduate from college, she will be completely deaf,” said Ms. Peterson. Both her mother and she take ASL classes, so that in the future they will be able to communicate with one another.

One of the main reasons she chose Keuka, was because of their experiential learning program. It allows her to complete internships in her own field before graduation.

Ms. Peterson shadowed Ms. Pflaumer’s freshman English class, her expository writing class and her senior poetry class. She also shadowed Mrs. Maddalena’s AP European history class, and her Holocaust and human behavior class.

We asked her to reflect on a few of her experiences. “In Ms. Pflaumer’s poetry class, I was able to teach a class; I wore a white dress like Emily Dickinson, because she always wore white as an iconic symbol. On that day, I got a glimpse of what it was really like to be a teacher,” said Ms. Peterson.

When shadowing Mrs. Maddalena’s classes she enjoyed learning about history and the Holocaust. Ms. Peterson had the chance to teach in Mrs. Maddalena’s class as well. “I showed clips of the movie “2081,” (which is the film version Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’), and led a discussion session with the students.”

Ms. Peterson enjoyed coming to a smaller school like AHS. Her high school in Detroit (Lake Orin High School) had 3,000 students. By comparison, there are 445 students at AHS.  “It’s much smaller than my high school,” she said. But, she liked it because “the students were very respectful.”

Ms. Peterson said her experience at AHS was amazing. “I learned so much about what the students learn. Both teachers have taught me so much about what teaching is. Both were so supportive and inspiring. I enjoyed working at this school!”