Other Preservice Teachers I've Mentored

About a week ago, I blogged about the student teachers I have had and then said I would do another entry about the other preservice teachers I have mentored. There were more than I thought, and may even be more than this - I have a file of letters of recommendations which is how I compiled this list. Otherwise, I would not have remembered any of them.

Except for one.

 Jessica Windsor.

A few weeks after taking over the 2/3 classroom at Hershey in the fall of 2006, I got a letter from Purdue, thanking me for signing up to take a Purdue Block student. Apparently Judy Riley, the teacher who had resigned five weeks into the school year, had signed up to take one, and now I was stuck and had to fulfill that agreement.

But it turned out to be a wonderful experience, and Jessica is my favorite of all. She was interested in teaching gifted and talented, and so she jumped right into teaching. Although she was a Block student (they come twice a week for two hours) and not a full time student teacher, she still spent a good amount of time working with kids, helping me, asking questions, and discussing aspects of gifted education with me.

We became very good friends in addition to mentor/student, and Jessica even came the following year to my summer learning trip at the Veterans Home and helped me with that. When she did her formal student teaching, I acted as a resource for her, and did the same again when she worked on her gifted/talented licensure. She was president of the Purdue Education Students Organization and asked me to come and speak to their group and then teach a seminar on campus in December, 2009.

Jessica even subbed for me for three weeks when I had my first knee replacement in December, 2010. I never worried about the kids - I knew they would have a good experience with Miss Windsor! 

Jessica was hired by the Elkhart school system in the summer of 2011 to teach 2/3 gifted and talented, and she taught there until the spring of 2013 when she resigned because her fiance, Kevin, had finished his studies at Purdue and taken a job in Washington State. 

She subbed all last year and then was hired this June to teach 2nd grade High Ability. No doubt she will be fabulous!

Another one that I remember is Shae Richert in the fall 2006 at Cumberland Elementary. I was not her mentor teacher; I worked at Cumberland for three weeks as an aide and then was hired away to teach at Hershey. But the kindergarten teacher in the class that Shae and I were in together was getting ready to retire, and she sat behind her desk all day, turning the running of the classroom completely over to Shae and giving her very little guidance. (Often she would leave the classroom and be gone long stretches of time!)

Shae Richert Zimmerman

Knowing that I was a teacher, Shae began asking me for guidance and suggestions. I was hesitant to do an end-run around the mentor teacher, but Shae needed help. So, I offered suggestions, encouraged, and gave her feedback. After I left Cumberland for Hershey, we remained in contact, and she asked me to write her a letter of recommendation (which I did). TSC wisely snapped her up, and she is teaching kindergarten at Woodland Elementary.

I ran into her this summer at JoAnn's Fabrics; she recognized me before I did her, but we had a chance to catch up and I got to meet her two kids.

And then there are the rest of my preservice teachers...

I am so foggy about these other people. I could find a couple of them on Facebook and recognized their faces, but that is about it.

~ Lisa Kallenback, fall 2005, Yankee Ridge

~ Laura Christenberry, spring 2008, Hershey

~ Allison Pratt, spring 2009, Hershey

~ Kathy Irwin, spring 2012, Hershey

I don't know where these women are now, although I heard Kathy Irwin was hired to teach in Ohio.

Finally, in 2004 or so, Eastern Illinois University asked me to take two gals who had completed their student teaching but needed a week's observation in a multicultural class to comply with the state's requirements for licensing. I agreed, and it was a DISASTER! The two girls just wanted to sit at the back of the room and talk to each other, and they were very disengaged from the kids. Even worse, they did not show up every day as they were supposed to. I contacted their supervisor, but she did nothing about it.

The final straw came when the girls gave me their time sheets to sign at the end of their time with me. They had been falsified - the girls had listed themselves as present on the days they had missed. I refused to sign the forms since they had not been there on days they'd documented that they had. They were quite unhappy with me, and, I suspect, forged my signature after leaving Yankee Ridge. I again emailed their supervisor, but she did not respond.

Due to that experience, I did not take any more EIU students.

My Student Teachers

I have been blessed to have had some high quality student teachers. I no longer mentor a full-time student teacher anymore - a gifted classroom is structured and taught so differently from a general education one,  I feel it's better that I remain in charge of my students' learning. (I have mentored Purdue's Block students; another blog post in the future will be about them.)

At Yankee Ridge, however, I was teaching a gen ed classroom, and so I accepted several student teachers. A good one can be a REAL help (divide and conquer) plus, the University of Illinois gave mentor teachers a tuition waiver for hosting a student teacher. Between that and scholarships, my Masters degree was free.

But, even the best student teacher is still new to the profession and has things to learn, so I only took one a year if I agreed to host one at all. I did not feel it fair for my class to have two student teachers a year, although there were teachers who disagreed with that philosophy and felt the extra set of hands in the classroom was worth the inexperience.

I am still in contact with all these former student teachers (except for one), and it has been fun to follow their careers.

 Melissa Wingate Willis

Melissa was my very first student teacher in the fall of 2001 and joined me just a few weeks after the twin towers fell on 9/11. Melissa was from Champaign and thus a local gal. She was a VERY hard worker, and one who cared deeply about the kids. She's been teaching at Lincoln Trails Elementary in Mahomet, Illinois (her principal is my dear friend and a former Yankee Ridge special ed teacher, Christine Northrup.) Melissa is now married, a mom, and recently finished her librarian's degree. She has just switched assignments in her building to be the new librarian at Lincoln Trails.

 Amanda Newport Leinhardt

Amanda is from Champaign and was a swimmer (her dad was the men's swim coach at the U of I.) I never, EVER saw this gal without a smile on her face, even when she was struggling with a lesson going awry! Amanda was in her take-over when I had to have my hip replaced (she knew about that before being placed with me and wanted to have me mentor her anyway) and she did a tremendous job coping with my absence and the substitute teacher who covered for me. 

Surprisingly, she had a difficult time getting hired. (Amanda was top notch!) That happens sometimes, and she and her husband were rather nomadic as he worked to get himself established as a pastor - that didn't help her find employment. They moved several times and she was never hired until they came back to Champaign. She's teaching kindergarten at Kenwood Elementary in Champaign. 

 Sara Ryder Tsioles

Sara was my last student teacher and with me in the spring of 2006 at Yankee Ridge. We also participated in the same University of Illinois graduation ceremony - she got her B.S. and I got my M.Ed! We took a picture together at graduation in our caps and gowns. Now she's a science teacher at The Center for the Gifted in Chicago, Illinois. 

Another hard worker, Sara was very shy and unaware that one of the male aides at Yankee Ridge had a terrific crush on her. (I still remember that his jaw dropped when he first saw her! He was smitten!) But Jason was shy, too, and although he eventually worked his courage up to ask her out, they didn't click.

Last is a gal who, sadly, should never have made it to the student teaching phase of her college education.

C.E. (Although this blog is private, I am not writing her name.)

She was clueless about how to work with kids. The first week she was with me, she took refuge behind my desk, kneeling and crying because she did not know what to do with them. Another time, she simply walked out of the class and went home because she said she needed a break. She shared pictures of herself drinking beer and holding her middle finger up. (I grabbed those right away and made her take them home.)

I contacted the U of I Education department that first week with my concerns. I was told to give C three more weeks and then give them an update. She had not improved by then, but when I again contacted the U of I, I was told that since she was so close to her graduation, there was nothing they could do. Needless to say, I was not happy with that, and I suspected that she would not get a classroom.

I was right - C could not find a job. The last time I spoke with her, she was working in a factory. I recently found her on Facebook, and she still does not have a classroom ten plus years later. She is working as an aide at a junior high in Normal and coaching 8th grade girls track.

C was very much an exception to the rule when it came to the quality of student teachers I have been blessed to work with.  Melissa, Amanda, and Sara were top notch and now are making a difference in students' lives on a daily basis. I am pleased to have been a part of their teacher training, and proud of them for what they have accomplished.

Even nicer to now call them colleagues and friends.