Student Teaching

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.

I took advantage of these services, but there was little information about jobs in eastern Montana.  I contacted Montana state employment and subscribed to their listing of jobs.  When my personnel file was completed I had it sent to several schools.  I was watching for job openings in the Miles City area.  This continued on into the summer without any positive results.  It looked as if I would be teaching cows and horses on the ranch if something didn’t turn up soon.

*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill