Starting in mid October, Four Rivers Career Center Teaching Careers students started their journeys in student teaching. This is where the career kids get placed with a teacher in the community to help not only the teacher give lessons to their classes, but also more so themselves in gaining characteristics of teaching that’ll help them in the future. Starting out, the young teachers go to their opposing schools two days a week. But eventually they will work their way up to three days a week.
“I am cadet teaching with Mr. Hornback and Mrs Gough over at the middle school who both teach history,” senior Jacob Baldwin said. “As of right now, I want to be a high school social studies teacher. I feel like I would be able to connect to high school kids easier than younger kids, and high school students are a little bit more mature. Also I love learning about history, so I believe I’d love to teach it just as much.”
The students placement is solely based on their personal interests. Depending on their age group and subjects of interest, the teaching careers students were placed in different schools all over the community.
“I hope to work in elementary, ideally first or second grade. I love little kids and I want to help them have a strong education from the start,” senior Emma Lock said. “I am placed at Immanuel Lutheran in the second grade with Mrs. Robinson.”
Although the students are only a couple weeks into their assisted teaching careers, there’s already a lot of lessons they hope to take away from their experience.
“The biggest things that I’ll be able to take away are to not be afraid of failure, and getting comfortable being uncomfortable. The more uncomfortable situations you’re in, the better off you’ll be in those situations in the future, so I think that will help a little with my nerves in the beginning of teaching,” Baldwin said. “ I know how the students feel in the classroom, and I get to see a little bit of how the teachers think so I kind of get to experience both sides at once. This helps me when it comes to understanding and building connections with students, which is such an important part of teaching.”
Teachers hold an important role in the world, one that should always be cherished. And for the Teaching Careers students, this is one of the visions they have for themselves in the future.
“Teachers impact our lives in many different ways. This impact involves not only the teaching of particular academic skills, but the fostering of a student,” Baldwin said. “Teachers get to see students for a long time over the course of the school year, and they become a great part of students’ lives. One day I can only hope to impact kids in the ways my teachers have with me.”