Elmhurst College, Churchville Middle School partner to prepare future teachers

ELMHURST –  One of the best ways to learn is by doing.

With that in mind, Elmhurst College education majors Victoria Mayer, 21, of Hampshire and Amanda Wall, 22, of Batavia spent 42 hours at Churchville Middle School learning what it’s like to be a middle school teacher.

Part of the three-week immersion class, EDU 360 Procedures and Principles of the Middle School, Mayer and Wall got a sense of the educational and developmental needs of sixth- to eighth-grade students.

Each Elmhurst College student in the 31-person class is paired with a school teacher who serves as a mentor for the duration of the hands-on experience. The mentor offers modeling, feedback, suggestions and teaching ideas, and the college student works with the younger students and helps them with their lessons.

Churchville Middle School is one of four schools participating in the program. The year-seven college students spent a total of 42 hours in the Elmhurst middle school from Jan. 4 to 26.

Ramona Osgood taught at Churchville for 36 years before retiring and becoming the coordinator between the college and the middle school.

“My job is to [find] teachers who are willing to be mentors for the three-week period,” Osgood said. “The point of the mentor is to help them get as varied an experience as possible.”

Although each college student has a particular concentration, the course is designed to involve them in many different aspects of what it’s like to be a middle school teacher. Mayer, for example, is an elementary education major with an interest in math, and Wall is a secondary education major interested in French and history.

“I got to see a cooking class, that is something I didn’t have in middle school,” Mayer said.

“They placed me with a Spanish teacher,” Wall said. “It was great to see the different methods and strategies, because I haven’t taken the methods class at [Elmhurst College].”

As part of the learning process, Mayer and Wall also had to be middle school students for a day and follow a nine-period schedule like the rest of the students.

“The idea is for them to get a feeling for things like how much these kids are walking around and what it’s like at the beginning of the day versus the end of the day,” Osgood said. “Those are all the things that realistically they are going to have to deal with when they teach.”

The exercise was eye opening for Wall, who was starting to get used to being on the teaching side of the classroom.

“It was kind of hard because we had to sit back and not move around, we had to be the student,” Wall said.

Elmhurst College professor and former middle school teacher Steven Burrichter believes the course is important because middle school students have different needs than elementary and high school students.

“Middle school is a special time in the life of a child because it is a moment when students grow from what they learn, and they really need for educators to care about them,” Burrichter said.

Elmhurst College Education Department Admissions Director Bill Slodki is also a former middle school teacher. He pointed out that although middle school students are great to work with, its not an easy job.

“It’s a calling,” he said. “There is a lot of handwork involved in teaching, and I really think the students get a sense of the professionalism involved by watching people who are successful at what they do.”

For more than 15 years, the Elmhurst College program has been successful in preparing future middle school educators in part because it involves the entire educational community. Former teachers introduce future teachers to current teachers, ensuring that the students uphold the best educational practices as they move forward with their career.

“This class is a giant team project,” Burrichter said. “It would not be successful without the participation of all the members of the team, the students, the mentors, the administrators and everyone involved.”

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To learn more about Elmhurst College programs, go to http://www.elmhurst.edu/

For more information about Churchville Middle School, visit http://churchville.elmhurst205.org/