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(Continued from page 2)
teach. There are from one to 14 practice
teachers at each school.
Alfrey said secondary education is
working to centralize its program to the
Lincoln-Omaha area only; students now
go as far as Beatrice. He added that with
jobs becoming scarcer, he encourages
students to investgate inner-city student
teaching. Statistics indicate this is where
the jobs are.
Student teaching is a training process.
But before the student can try teaching,
he first must be trained.
Preparatory instruction for elementary
education majors include nine "methods"
classes on the subjects of mathematics,
language arts, science, social studies and
others. In some methods classes, students
"mini-teach" a unit for about a week.
According to May, "There is an
increased emphasis in Teachers College on
more and earlier contact with the
classroom."
I n secondary education, the
preparatory classes are quite different.
The student takes only 23 total hours
within Teachers College (el ed majors
take 35-40 hours) and only one course,
besides student teaching within the
secondary education department.
This is a methods course in his major,
which is taken the semester bofoie
student, teaching. The course includes 60
hours of actual classroom work called
"teacher assisting."
Sintek said she was satisfied with her
training. Talking with other student
teachers reveals differing opinions.
Anne Beer, who student taught sixth
graders last semester, said she saw a lot of
incongruity between the methods classes
and the actual teaching experience. She
said she would rather see all methods
classes concentrated into the semester
preceding student teaching and broken
into three-week segments in each subject
area.
Mary Ann Seuss, also a first semester
elementary education student teacher,
said there wasn't enough practical
experience in her classes. Only one of her
methods instructors used the
"mini-teaching" idea.
At the semester's end, both
elementary and secondary student
teachers are evaluated jointly by their
cooperating teacher (the regular instruc
tor) and a University representative. A
student's University representative visits
the classroom periodically to observe the
student teacher's performance.
Based on their report, Teachers
College assigns the student a numerical
grade.
According to Alfrey, however,
evaluation in secondary education is
becoming more "performance based." By
this he means a cooperating teacher
decides in the beginning on certain basic
skills a student teacher should bo able to
master duiing the semester and the
student teacher is evaluated on successful
fulfillment of these objectives.
He still is given a grade, but Alfrey
said: "As we move toward a more
objective evaluation, we have less of a
need for something like a grade. What
does a grade actually say?"
May said they try to determine by
midsemester if a student is doing well
enough to continue teaching. About five
or six of 180 students either don't pass or
drop out of elementary student teaching
each semester. In secondary education,
the figure is eight per cent.
Percentages and statistics and objective
evaluations form a framework, but in the
end, only the student can measure the
value of his semester of student
teaching. As Sintek said, looking
around room 209 at McPhee, "This is
where you learn it."
The usual image of a student teacher
emphasizes "student" a class visitor who
spends most of his time observing the
regular teacher or correcting papers.
Perhaps most prospective students
expect this treatment themselves. Not so
in Sintek's case, however.
"We think of it as a team effort," she
said. "She (the cooperating teacher) helps
me out and I help her out."
According to May, a good relationship
with the cooperating teacher is essential.
It should be one of "mutual confidence
and respect to the point that they can
reason together on their approaches to
teaching ... It is the cooperating
teacher's responsibility to keep the
student challenged at all times, gradually
assuming more and more responsibilities
without becoming frustrated."
From McPhee, the University
laboratory school, Sintek has come to
reject the grading system. "Grades don't
tell you a thing," she said.
Then there are those things that can
only be learned from trial and error.
Those things which are, as Sintek says,
"So simple . . . things you've always
known, but just never tought about
before."
"Knowing something and doing it are
two different things," she added. "You
can understand math, but to get it across
to students, you have to be able to
communicate it verbally on their level."
One problem the student teacher faces
is discipline. The students in the
classroom are aware of the "student" part
of student teaching.
This is what Beer said she disliked
about student teaching. "No matter how
much freedom a teacher gives you, you
know you're not really a teacher," she
said.
"You can't possibly learn from a book
how to approach a student with a special
problem," Beer said. "Or how to handle a
class with real little people and problems,
and the complicated ways they interact
with each other and act toward you."
Both Teachers College and students
seem to agree on this one point:
experience is the best teacher. Or, in this
case, experience makes the best teacheis.
Cooperating teacher Mary
Gilliland lends a hand in
problem situations.
photos by
Gail Folda
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