Introduction
Here at EPHS, there has been a fair share of student teachers around the building. In this article, not only will one learn the different meanings and perspective of “student teaching”, but they will get to know EPHS’s very own, Ms. Gonzalez, as well as get to read an exclusive interview with her University Supervisor from Dominican University, Mr. Doyle.
Zooming in on Ms. Gonzalez
Ms. Gonzalez has been a student teacher at EPHS now since the beginning of the spring semester. She does all the work of a regular teacher but unpaid, for the experience. She has been a student teaching at EPHS since January 8th, and will finish on April 26th, having taught a total of 16 weeks. Ms. Gonzalez teaches a variety of subjects such as Intro to Journalism, English 1 Collaborative, and English 2 Honors. Not only that, but she took over 2 MTSS advisories and one Senior Advisory. Read this lovely interview with Ms. Gonzalez to learn more about her and her student teaching experience!
Interview with Ms. Gonzalez
Q: What is a student teacher to you?
A: “Somebody who has completed their required courses for their undergraduate degree, they are in their last process of getting their license by the state, and they have to complete a certain amount of hours in order to become a teacher.”
Q: Are some classes more difficult to student teach than others?
A: Her freshman English class was a struggle to teach because “they are just a quiet bunch, and it’s first period, so getting them to interact has been hard.” Journalism was difficult as well because “they didn’t know me in the beginning, so there wasn’t the ability to tell me their interests so I could help them with their articles”, but she felt there was a “learning curve” as “by this last article it’s become easier” since she knows their interests more. Her “most fun class to teach” was English 2 Honors as she “was able to push them and assign fun activities for them to do”.
Q: Do you feel that you have bonded with the students?
A: “Yeah of course, I’m definitely going to miss my group of students I’ve been working with.” She went on to explain that there was almost a “curve” as it started off “like ‘who is this stranger?’, and then there was like ‘oh, okay she’s just my teacher’, and then there was like ‘oh it’s Ms. Gonzalez.’” Ms. Gonzalez is sad she’s leaving after making these “meaningful relationships” and her students will miss her just as much.
Q: Do you enjoy student teaching?
A: “There was definitely a learning curve where in the beginning I was having trouble managing my personal life, personal needs, and my own classwork”. She explained that there was almost an exhaustion but as time has gone on, she has gotten into the groove and had a lot of fun. “I’ve learned a lot and met a lot of cool teachers”.
Q: What do you want to do with your student teaching experience?
A: “I’m not quite going into the field of education right off the bat, I’m getting my masters starting in the summer for the MLIS program, which is Master’s in Library Information Science so I’m going to lean more towards librarianship. With that, I wanna do instructional librarianship. I also still would like to sub part time.”
Interview with Mr. Doyle
Mr. Doyle ended up overseeing Ms. Gonzalez’s student teaching experiences as he is the only language arts student teacher supervisor for Dominican University. Not only is he her supervisor for student teaching, but he was previously her teacher. The official term used to explain what he works in is Education 496, Student Teaching Secondary Level. He has worked with Ms. Gonzales for a full year now, and plans to stay in touch by following up and checking in. Read on to see Mr. Doyle’s thoughts on what a student teacher truly is, and more about this job!
Q: What is a student teacher?
A: “Every student teacher wants to change the world” and he believes that they should be “filled with energy”.
Q: What is it like being a supervisor for student teachers?
A: He gets to visit all different kinds of schools, so it’s very interesting seeing all the different environments. Since he got to have Ms. Gonzalez as a student last semester, “it’s a two way street” from student to teacher.
Q: How many student teachers are you in charge of? Is Ms. Gonzalez the only one?
A: “It changes from semester to semester” so this semester he had two, and last semester he had one. It varies as he is given any of the language arts student teachers.
Q: How do you grade student teachers?
A: “They don’t get a grade, they get a pass or fail.” Student teachers also get feedback from the classroom observations.
Q: What do you look for when you come in and watch Ms. Gonzalez?
A: “I want to see that she’s energetic, I want see that she wants to be here because there have been instances where teachers just come here and go through the motions, and I definitely don’t wanna see any of that [with Ms. Gonzalez]. I want to see energy! I want to see creativity! I want to see the originality! I want to see them take chances!” He goes on to explain what a good opportunity this is as the student teachers have a “safety net” to experiment!
Conclusion
Two very different but both correct explanations of student teaching! Hopefully after reading this article, one was able to learn more about student teaching in general, Don’t forget to stop on by to meet EPHS’s very own Ms. Gonzales before April 26th!
Work Cited:
K. Doyle, personal communication, April 8th, 2024
V. Gonzalez, personal communication, April 12th, 2024
