Steve (Quote1):  The sooner you're in the classroom, the sooner you know what your job's going to be like.  I feel like in the college environment, you sit around with your fellow colleagues and you discuss what its like to be in that classroom, and you make lesson plans… but when you're in that classroom and those kids are looking at you, you know the pressure's on but it's a good thing.  You're really working for those students and its validating, I think, to work for those students instead of to maybe work for a professor or something like that.

Steve (Quote 2):  I would say with the urban experience there's a lot more going on.  In college, college kids know how to interact in a classroom, they know how to answer questions, they know how to raise their hands.  High school, to go back there, is just mayhem for those first couple days, and you're really getting a feel of how to engage those kids.  That's the key for any student from elementary all the way up through college is you need to engage them, but the way you engage them is different according to the level those children are at and their experience and their context.  I can't go in there and talk to them about Shakespeare unless I'm talking to them about Shakespeare somehow related to the streets or something like that.  They're just going to be turned off if you don't engage them from the beginning.

Steve (Quote3):  I actually heard about the program from some friends of mine and fellow students.  I decided it was something I wanted to do.  I actually stacked on another semester of my education to be in this program.  I just heard the experience was good for them, it's hands-on.  It just really gets you equipped for being in the classroom a lot more than being in a college classroom discussing it hypothetically.  You're in the classroom. You're experiencing it.  You're trying out lessons and when they blow up in your face, you learn and you adapt.  It's real time. It's like being right there as if you were at a job, but you're not getting paid.