My final quarter of
preparation for teaching started this same morning. I had a few hours of sleep before getting
ready for an early meeting with Art Beaudreau, the Industrial Art teacher at
Cheney High School. I knew him from his
membership in Epsilon Pi Tau and projects we had worked on together. Cheney High School was a favorite placement for
student teaching because of its location on the edge of the Eastern campus with
access to college faculty and resources.
Mr. Beaudreau worked closely with the college Industrial Arts staff and
had one or two students each quarter doing student teaching in the High School. I was slightly aware of the student teaching
program from observing Tom Plant last year.
With all of this awareness,
student teaching felt comfortable to me.
I needed to work on my relationship with the students however. We were told in our education classes to be
friendly but firm. Stepping out of the
role of a student into a teaching role is a major shift in thinking and
behavior. Students that have been
exposed to student teachers frequently, as was the case at Cheney High School,
tend to test the new teacher extensively.
I found that being honest with them and trying to help solve their
problems developed the best relationship.
Mr. B., as fondly referred to
by most, had me observe in classes at first to see what students were doing. I was also given student work to
correct. After several weeks I was asked
to work up a lesson and present it. Gradually, more and more classroom activities
were assigned to me. I also had an
opportunity to experience faculty life and some of the non instructional
activity that is part of most schools. I
was asked to help chaperone a school dance and sit with a student club while
they planned an event. I found my time
with high school FFA valuable in giving the students pointers on structure and
function of their committee. I was
having a great time, but I understood Tom’s frustration at not having the full
responsibility from the start to finish of a class or an activity. That would come soon when I’d go out on my
first job. I determined now was the time
to learn as much as possible about the teaching process.
Dr. McGrath was the
supervisor of student teaching and evaluated our performance for the fifteen
credits on our transcript. Appointments
were set up during the quarter to assess how I was doing and respond to questions. Early in the quarter general meetings were
scheduled with placement personnel to develop placement files and give current
information about job opportunities. In
the spring each year a major educational job fair was held in Spokane. Schools from all over the state and region
would send representatives to set up an office in a major hotel, usually the Davenport
Hotel. Rooms in the hotel were turned
into hiring offices for the three days of the job fair. Teachers and prospective teachers would roam
the halls looking for the perfect job.
*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill
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