The traditional course of college study for undergraduates in the teacher education program for many years, including the 1980s, consisted of a four-year undergraduate program ending with a bachelor’s degree and teaching certification in a specialized area of education. Back in those days, the college academic year was divided into four quarters (including summer, each about ten weeks long), not three semesters (each about sixteen weeks long). Traditionally, the last quarter of an education major’s college career was spent student teaching.
I looked for years toward the student teaching experience with dread. Student teaching is an intense time when the prospective teacher works closely with one or more veteran teachers. It involved frequent evaluations of the cooperating teacher(s) and visits from the university’s student teaching supervisor. I found the prospect of such close supervision and scrutiny nerve-wracking.
My last quarter as an undergraduate student, from roughly mid-March until the end of May, 1987, was solely devoted to the teaching experience. As I was a secondary education major with pending Tennessee certifications in English and history, LMU veteran education professor Dr. Okie Lee Wolfe assigned me to student teach at Soldiers’ Memorial Middle School in Claiborne County. This was logical—my elementary certification was in all subjects grade 1-9 (a certification that no longer exists), and my English and history certifications were in grades 7-12. A middle school assignment combined the concept of upper elementary and lower secondary grades simultaneously.
Dr. Wolfe intended for me to train under one of her former students, a lady she perceived to be very much like me in personality. Unfortunately, this particular lady had her classroom running just exactly the way she wanted it, and she did not want to interrupt her routine to train a student teacher. I was reassigned to two separate teachers in a different grade level.
During the first few years of my actual teaching I was to see one of my cooperating teachers, Debbie Brogan Campbell, at various Tennessee Education Association meetings. Ms. Campbell was a first year teacher, and she had just completed her own student teaching the previous year. Sadly, I haven’t seen Ms. Campbell in man years. I understand she is now retired.
I had not seen my other cooperating teacher, Ms. Bennie Mills, for over thirty years until she and I happened to be at a mutual receiving of friends at a funeral home; however, through the ensuing years I had been able to keep “tabs” on her through my pharmacist Cindy Hudson, Ms. Mills’ niece. Just as I thought, Ms. Mills did not recognize me at sight, but she remembered me when I told her who I was. It was a pleasure to be able to thank her for all the help she gave me during my student teaching experience.
Both Ms. Campbell and Ms. Mills were very kind and gracious to me, much more so than I deserved.
The greatest thing that student teaching showed me was that the fantasy of teaching (what we might call “playing school”) and the reality of classroom instruction with real students were far removed from each other.
Nerve-wracking though it was, student teaching was a good experience. My first class of the day was a small reading group of seventh graders on fourth grade reading level, a very sweet group of students. Ms. Mills told me she wished she could evaluate me on my teaching to that group alone. She praised my questioning technique.
My second class was seventh grade math with approximately thirty students. This class was a sweet group of students as well. Ms. Mills told me I was teaching above these students’ heads. She told me that undoubtedly in school I would have been in the “A” group, but this class was the “C” group. Not to discredit Ms. Mills, but I did not know that going in—perhaps I should have been able to have figured it out. It didn’t help my situation that I was teaching ratio:proportion and conversion of percentages to decimals and vice versa, some of my weakest skills as a student. Nevertheless, Ms. Mills rated me satisfactory.
My third class was a seventh grade English class. This class was a veritable disaster for me. The highlights I remember were how I was unable to discipline the group, chewing them out for their misbehavior only to have a redheaded boy tell me, “Your britches are unzipped.” I also lost the test papers this group took, much to my embarrassment, Ms. Campbell’s anger, and the students’ derision.
The other class I taught during student teaching was also seventh grade English, but never have I seen a sweeter group of students! Same material as the disastrous class, but such well-mannered, well-behaved students with the most charming personalities. This class loved the way I pronounced the word “coupon” (coopin’).
At the end of a hard day of student teaching, I’d go home and crash in my gold-colored La-z-boy with a very sweet natured stray, gray Persian cat I named Graybo. Graybo seemed to appear just during this stressful time when I needed some extra love. I was missing my friends and sweetheart from LMU, as I did not live in the dorm during student teaching to save housing costs. Hard to believe, but gasoline was cheaper for an old eight-cylinder car that college housing in 1987.
Even the Good Lord knew I needed a break. There was a huge snowfall in April 1987, which closed Claiborne County Schools for two days, giving me an unexpected respite in the middle of my new and somewhat uncomfortable environment.
Part of my student teaching experience was the requirement to keep a daily journal. I shall neither part with it nor read it again. Thanks to the compassion and guidance of my two cooperating teachers, I passed student teaching and graduated.
Then it was time to find a job. In my next article I’ll share my experiences of finding my first teaching job.