For several weeks, student teachers from the University of Connecticut have spent time teaching classes under the supervision of South Windsor High School teachers, but what is this program, and how did it impact SWHS students and teachers?
The student-teacher program is one that is run by the University of Connecticut. In participating schools, a student teacher comes in once a week during the fall semester, and for at least 4 consecutive weeks in the spring semester. During their time at the school, they teach classes, plan lessons, grade assignments, and take on all other responsibilities of a teacher. In a way, it is a trial run for being a full time teacher.
The goal of the program is to better prepare college students to become teachers by having them work directly in the classroom. The program not only challenged its students, but it also allowed them to gain invaluable knowledge and experience that they could have only obtained from teaching first hand.
Student teacher, Luke Semanie, told The Prowl, “Student teaching has been one of the most educationally beneficial experiences of my entire life, especially in professional teaching. By actually being in here hands-on with the students every day, interacting with both staff and students, you don’t get a better experience in terms of learning how to be a teacher than that.”
He praised the value of the program, saying, “You can read as many books as you want, you can look at as many infographics as you want, but if you don’t have the actual face-to-face interactions with the students, you can never grow as a teacher, and that’s something that this has been crazily beneficial for me for.”
The experience not only impacted the student teachers, but it also had an effect on the SWHS staff who worked with them.
SWHS English teacher, Mr. Webb, shared his experience, saying, “My favorite part about having a student teacher was the different perspectives provided by them. It really makes you re-examine your practice because, if you’re going to model for someone, it makes you automatically get better because you know as you get older, complacency can kick in and it really makes you go back to the beginning and really reinforce everything you do.”
Student teachers didn’t just learn from SWHS staff, in some ways, SWHS staff learned from the student teachers.
As college students who are part of a younger generation, and have more recently experienced high school, the student teachers provide more accurate information and feedback to the teachers they are working with, and show them new ways to teach lessons that could better resonate with their students.
As a result of these changes, student teachers also gave a change of pace to many of the classes they taught in. Some of the students became more engaged in their classes since they enjoyed the teaching style a student teacher was able to bring to their class.
As young adults, every student teacher could better understand and connect with the students in their class. Having grown up with a similar experience to their students, student teachers can sometimes better understand the jokes and behaviors of many of their students, more so than their teachers.
SWHS freshman, Aashray Veerapaneni, said, “My favorite part about having a student teacher was the different perspectives provided by them. I also enjoyed the ability to be able to relate to them in a different way compared to my normal teachers.”
This connection in experiences and humor led many students to form strong connections with their student teachers, bonding over their love of games like Pokemon, or topics like music, movies, memes, and shows. As a result of these bonds, students organized class parties to celebrate their time with their student teachers, before their departure on May 1st. These class parties gave SWHS students a chance to express their gratitude for the future teachers who joined their classrooms, and had an impact on their high school experience.
