Mike Wolanin | The Republic CSA New Tech senior Briana Dwenger, from left, visits with Elijah Roberts and Makayla Rash as they work on a parody project in a dramatic literature class at CSA New Tech in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. Dwenger is teaching the as part of her senior internship at CSA New Tech.
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
These oft-quoted words from William Shakespeare come to mind as a local high school senior takes on a new role — teaching Dramatic Literature to her fellow students.
CSA New Tech student Briana Dwenger is leading the class as her senior internship.
“It was just a great opportunity to step into teaching and see what it’s like teaching high schoolers,” she said.
Not to be confused with a senior project — which is a graduation requirement for all Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. seniors — a senior internship is one of the requirements that must be met for a CSA student to earn the “New Tech Seal” on their high school diploma.
The seal is optional and “a hard honor to earn,” said teacher Joe Steele, who has served as Dwenger’s mentor. Interns are asked to be on their work site for a total of 75 hours. Students seeking the seal must also complete 100 hours of community service, 12 college credit hours and four years of mathematics and STEM courses.
During her junior year, Dwenger did some cadet teaching supervised by Steele for the same dramatic literature course. This year, she asked to teach it by herself as preparation for her future career plans. She plans to attend Butler University to study secondary education mathematics so that she can teach algebra. However, she also hopes to stay involved in theatre, as she’s always had a passion for it.
“For this semester that I am teaching, I’m basically grading all the paperwork,” said Dwenger. “I am in charge of discipline, keeping the class in control, things like that. I create all the assignments. I am doing all of the organizing and planning. I make the lesson plans, everything like that.”
Steele supervises and puts discipline reports into the system when necessary.
In addition to everyday activities, the class is also putting on a play this spring. While Dwenger hasn’t picked a production yet, she plans to do a murder mystery.
She said it’s “kind of weird” to be teaching her fellow students, though it helps that they’re all younger than her. It is still odd to give instructions to people in her same age group, but she feels she’s earned their respect — though this was a challenge at first.
“I know from experience that people don’t like to listen to somebody who won’t listen to them,” said Dwenger. “And I will admit, I’m a very headstrong person, so I have to sometimes step back and look and be like, ‘Oh, I need to hear them out as well.’”
During her cadet teaching, she had to learn about herself and learn to step back and look at the bigger picture instead of just her perspective. She had to realize that, despite her perfectionist tendencies, she can’t always control the end result.
Dwenger also said that it’s interesting to see how students react to a student teacher, as opposed to an adult. She feels that they’re more open and genuine with her because there’s not a generational gap.
“I will say that they are a little bit rowdier with me than they are with regular teachers,” said Dwenger, “but I feel like that’s also because they feel like they’re in a safe space. And that was one of my goals, so I’m not that bothered by it.”
