Teachers, students and student-teachers

A new program expands MLC grads' options

By KREMENA TODOROVA

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It's more than a win-win situation. This one is a triple win.

Teachers get an extra pair of hands. Students get another perspective. And student-teachers, perhaps the biggest winners, get to test what they've learned against reality.

In its second year, a student teaching program at MLC pairs education majors with teacher mentors in the public school system.

It is a major breakthrough for the college, which has traditionally prepared students to teach at parochial schools associated with Wisconsin Lutheran Synod congregations. While that basic role remains unchanged, the college went through the lengthy, painstaking process of state accreditation, which, to sum up a long story, enabled its education program majors to graduate with Minnesota state licenses.

The step was intended to ensure that the young teachers are fully prepared to meet any possible challenge in the classroom, says Dr. Gene Pfeifer, Director of Clinical Experiences.

State licensure also expands the professional opportunities available to graduates, Pfeifer says. While students do join the teacher training program with the understanding they are preparing to teach in Lutheran schools, an open position might not be available in their geographic area or field of interest. Besides its obvious validity in this state, a Minnesota teaching license is more or less easily transferrable in other states, which translates into more versatility for the graduates.

The MLC program is licensed for grades K-8, which covers the majority of education program majors. Students can still graduate with a degree in secondary or pre-school education, without the state license.

The program involves a large proportion of MLC students. While some MLC students are in the pre-pastoral and staff ministry tracks, about 800 out of some 1060 enrollees are majoring in education, Pfeifer reports. With 160-170 new teachers graduating each year, MLC ranks among the top third of teacher "producing" colleges in the state.

The MLC students' presence in public and charter schools takes up slightly different forms. Juniors go to public schools one day a week for a semester. For seniors it is a more continuous, concentrated experience, every day for four weeks.

A little over 300 MLC seniors and juniors, are "spread out" among eight public school systems and two charter schools, says Pfeifer. The public schools are New Ulm, Sleepy Eye, St. James, Madelia, GFW, Cedar Mountain and Comfrey. The charter schools are in Lafayette and Hanska.

(The future teachers also continue their intense exposure to Lutheran school classrooms, with their 10-week student teaching "internship" taking place in Lutheran schools.)

Public and charter school teacher participation is entirely voluntary, says Pfeifer. Currently, 139 teachers in public schools participate in the program.

Juniors have to teach at least one lesson, and seniors at least one day of lessons, says Pfeifer. Professors visit classrooms to observe student teachers' work.

For juniors, the experience tends to be more like "getting a feel" for the classroom -- the different types of students and their needs, teaching styles and other "realities," notes Terri Schuette, a sixth-grade teacher at Washington Elementary who has "taken in" student teachers for two years. Juniors often do one-on-one work with, say, advanced readers.

Seniors follow a more demanding schedule, says Schuette. They begin with observation and practicing classroom organization skills (roll-call, attendance, planner checks). During their second week they team-teach based on lesson plans developed by the mentoring teacher. They then move on to "shadow-teaching" or teaching the second part of a unit started by the mentor. Finally, they teach units on their own, using their own lesson plans. The lessons are based on broad objectives determined by the mentor, and it is "a give-an-take" process, says Schuette. The mentor observes the student teacher's performance, discusses it with the student and makes an evaluation.

According to Rebecca Pate, a senior and student teacher in Schuette's classroom, the experience is more than a chance to try out the theoretical knowledge obtained at the college. It is an opportunity to test personal teaching styles and learn to adapt the theory to real-life situations.

Pate speaks with enthusiasm about interactions with her mentor, things like suggestions for "proximity control" and various techniques, polished and learned anew.

Marsha Sheridan, an MLC senior working with Washington sixth-grade teacher Tammy Yackley, agrees that the public school experience is a good chance to "see how things really flow" in the classroom. She notes the difference between her public school and Lutheran school experiences-- and the extra dimension that being able to operate in both adds to a student teacher's training.

Sheridan's mentor, Tammy Yackley, in turn, is quick to point out MLC's "awesome" responsiveness to new ideas. Responding to mentors' suggestions, schedules have been adjusted from the original two days a week for seniors, to ensure more continuity in the classroom experience, notes Yackley.

Yackley touches upon another aspect of the interaction: experienced teachers getting a fresh new look and new ideas from a younger teacher. "It is a two-way street," she says.

Yackley and Schuette agree that MLC's future teachers are very well prepared to function in the classroom and a pleasure to work with.

The participants in the program note yet another angle: the benefits to the kids in public school.

When classroom sizes were higher last year, says Yackley, the MLC students were a godsend.

"The kids get used to the new faces, and it is no big deal," she says. "They appreciate the extra help. It provides variety for the kids."