[gallery ids="10473,10474,10472"]
By Gracie Fairfax | The Echo
Most college seniors spend time scrolling through LinkedIn and dreaming about their ideal real-world career. After a tiring job search, they close their laptops and find some friends to join them in bouts of procrastination.
But for some college seniors, the real world was last semester's reality.
Many student teachers begin their first placements as early as the end of July, arriving before most Taylor students. Once in student teaching mode, the amount of free time for hanging out with friends and attending campus events is slim.
Each student teacher has two placements over the course of the semester. During the second half, students have the option of going abroad or teaching outside Indiana.
For senior Kelly Wildman, an elementary education major, the second half of the semester took her to Wuxi, China, to teach 5th grade at the International School of Wuxi.
Wildman's workday, in China, started as early as 7 a.m. so she could attend meetings and prepare for classes, which began at 8:45 a.m.
She spent the first half of the semester in a kindergarten/first grade split class at Westview Elementary in Jonesboro, Indiana. Her overall student teaching experience allowed her to be exposed to two incredibly different teaching environments.
Since she taught at an international school in China, Chinese students were only allowed to attend if they held foreign passports. The majority of her students in China were Koreans learning English. The atmosphere of the school also differed, since her Jonesboro placement was in a public school, while her Wuxi placement was in a Christian school.
Wildman chuckled at how many differences there were.
"The only similar thing is that I was teaching," Wildman said.
Senior Joel Biere, a social studies education major, spent his first placement at Marion High School in Marion, Indiana. His second placement took him to the American School of Yaoundé, located in the capital city of the West-Central African nation of Cameroon.
In Marion, Biere's day lasted from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., including time spent grading, planning and making parent phone calls.
In total, Biere had 180 students at Marion High School between three AP U.S. History classes and two freshmen classes.
Since he taught three different classes in Marion, he needed three unique lesson plans each day, in addition to various writeups due to the education department at Taylor.
In Cameroon, there was a focus on service learning and on doing good without mentioning God.
While teaching philosophy classes in Yaounde, Biere was asked about his faith.
"I did share my faith, but was met with a lot of resistance," Biere said. "It was kind of where I felt content coming into real life, using the arguments and defending the faith. It's not intellectual suicide to believe in God."
Biere felt that the school in Yaounde was much more learner-friendly than the school in Marion. However, he found himself interested in returning to both an overseas and an urban environment.
While he loves teaching, some days posed challenges as he failed to see a reward for his efforts.
"You kind of expect to see improvement in some of your kids and sometimes you don't," Biere said. "Sometimes it feels like everything you're doing is worthless."
Senior elementary education student Katie DeHaan spent the first half of fall semester at Southside Elementary in Hartford City and the second half at Los Angeles Christian School in Los Angeles, California.
As a member of the track team, DeHaan left Southside around 4 p.m. and went straight to her track practice at Taylor.
Many student teachers struggle to feel connected to the Taylor community while teaching, but being on the track team helped DeHaan feel more connected than most.
In L.A., DeHaan enjoyed smaller class sizes and adjusted to a different demographic.
"I was in a Hispanic neighborhood so all of my students were Spanish speakers, so that really affected the dynamics in the classroom as far as reading comprehension and vocabulary," DeHaan said.
Another difference was that the school in L.A. was a Christian school, which DeHaan noted had a very different feel from Southside, a public school.
"The school itself was a lot more family-oriented, which was really cool to see parent involvement," DeHaan said. "A lot of parents had to volunteer in order to pay off their student's tuition."
One of the highlights for DeHaan was the day before Thanksgiving break when some of the moms prepared a Thanksgiving feast for the students that lasted about two hours in the afternoon.
As the student teachers readjust to life on campus, they bring with them many lessons and fresh perspectives.
One thing Wildman realized was the importance of seeing things from the students' perspective.
"I expected them to know more than they knew in terms of English," Wildman said. "That was something I had to keep in mind-that they're not only learning new content, but they're listening to a second language all day so it's just really tiring for them. I wish I knew more about what to do in those situations, hence wishing I had taken more TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) classes."
Biere learned about the impact of his personal decisions on his students.
"As a student you can kind of go to bed knowing that tomorrow, whatever decision you make only really affects you," Biere said. "As a teacher, every decision you make affects 180 students."
As the student teachers return to their roles on campus for one final semester, they have newfound appreciation for their professors as they look forward to, once again, being on the flip side.
