Reporter: Marisol Contreras-Figueroa
Photo Provided By: Mrs. Nilsson
Edited By: Ms. Riley
Mrs. Nilsson has been teaching students for about fifteen years: five years in preschool, four years in elementary, and now has been teaching at Eisenhower High School for six years. She’s currently teaching four different types of classes including Intermediate Education, Careers with Children, Careers in Education and AVID 11. The first three of these classes are part of a Family and Consumer Science Sector in which she teaches future teachers. She attended San Diego State during her freshman year, then later went to Mount San Antonio and then to Golden West College in Huntington Beach . Eventually she transferred to Cal State San Bernardino when she got her Bachelor's degree.
When she was the director of a preschool, a former teacher was bringing her students to the preschool to learn about teaching and to eventually become teachers themselves. This is when she fell in love with mentoring and teaching high school students. She taught them things such as how to instruct circle time (when all students gather around to interact with each other or do activities), or teach a three year old about the water cycle. Another teacher had spoken to Mrs. Nilsson about how she was going to retire and how she should apply for her position. She told Mrs. Nilsson that her students would come back to her saying, “You know Mrs. Nilsson at the preschool? She showed me how to teach a kid this way. I think it’s pretty cool, let me show you”. She applied and got the job. She continues, “Now, I’m here and I feel like I’m mentoring students down their career path, down their life journey on how to become a teacher. It all starts right now, my classes are pretty cool, meaning we get to go off campus almost every single day of the week and we actually got to go work with students from infants to toddlers and up. Our high schoolers are getting that experience right now.” Unlike, when she was in college and she had to pay for that experience, she says, “I get to [to take students to get hands-on experience] for free. Public education is amazing take advantage of these resources.”
When asked about things she did outside of class while she was in college, she began to say that she worked multiple jobs and “worked a lot. I’m proud to say I graduated college with no debt, I received zero financial aid. So I hustled. I worked multiple full time jobs while going to school full time to pay for every single penny.”She also spoke about the immense time management skills she had to develop to accomplish her goal of having zero debt once she graduated. She would wake up at 4 a.m. to get dressed and be at work at 5 a.m where she managed a Victoria's Secret store in a mall. Her shift ended at 1:32 p.m. and from there she would go four stores down to manage a store called Nine West from 2 pm to 9 pm. She would then close the store, drive home, sleep, and repeat it again. She would attend school all day on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and would work almost every other day. Usually on a Saturday or Sunday, she would take a day off work to catch up on her assignments and rest. Every other day she would work two full time jobs to support herself.
Nilsson had been inspired to become a teacher at a young age. She really enjoyed showing people how to do certain things, whether it was knitting, learning how to read and pronounce letters, showing kids how to do art projects, or adding numbers by using cheerios. Mrs. Nilsson said, “[I] always had a fun time explaining things. I’m very hands on. I understand worksheets...they’re great for data collection. I just feel like hands-on experience, conversations, one-on-one interactions, group interactions, people to people, human to human, are so much more meaningful than a worksheet. But that’s me, worksheets aren’t bad, they’re important to collect information. But let’s not put so much emphasis on a piece of paper, let’s get to know the whole human.”
When Mrs. Nilsson was asked about what she found meaningful about being a preschool teacher, she responded by saying, “Zero to five is when our brains quadruple in size. It’s when our bodies grow the most. When are you ever going to double in size between your first and second year? That’s it...It only happens when you’re born. Zero to five is when all the brain axons are firing and the synapses are receiving all of this information. It is amazing what our brains can accomplish. Zero to five is when our brains are observing all this information. We are essentially setting up our life long learners by catching them at such a young age. It’s so important.”
I asked Mrs. Nilsson what the best part of her job is. Her response was that she gets to “interact with cool humans every single day. I get to exchange ideas and learn new things. I am a big believer in lifelong learning because if you’re not learning you’re stagnant and if you’re stagnant you’re still. I’m not a still person, I have to be moving [and] learning. I like to be productive.” I asked Nilsson what she thought makes a great teacher and she stated, “Passion. I mean if you’re not here to have an impact, a positive impact, what are you doing here? You have to like kids. You have to like working with them. I really think you should have fun while doing your job, […] otherwise, you’re going to be miserable and who wants to be miserable in life? Life is too short, enjoy it!”