 "Photo:")
Edwin Ledgard wasn't ready to teach on his first day of the job.
"Right from day one, you got to be prepared for the kids, and I was not prepared," he said. "It really started me off on a weak foot."
Ledgard and Jackie Ringholz weren't told what to expect on their first day as full-time teachers, so they wanted to give advice to future teachers by coming to UT and speaking to UT3 and other education majors.
For the past school year, the UT3 program (UToledo, UTeach, UTouch the future) has held a series of seminars called "Cultivating Urban Teachers," a series for students majoring in education, because the group wanted to teach them more about what it takes to be a teacher and how to get a job as one.
Monday's seminar was about what students who have graduated have experienced in their first year of teaching.
Ringholz said she learned what to do on the first day she started teaching during her time as a student teacher.
"Nobody ever told me what to do on day one," she said. "The best advice I could give you is while you're student teaching, ask your cooperating teacher what they did on day one."
Student teaching is nothing like your first year of actual teaching, Ringholz said.
"With student teaching, you're prepared weeks ahead of time, your lessons are approved by the cooperating teacher and you have all the materials that you need," she said. "First year [of teaching], you approve your lessons, you're planning the day before and you have to seek out all these materials."
Ledgard and Ringholz agreed that students must be as prepared as possible ahead of time.
"Being prepared on a daily basis will eliminate some of the behavior problems [with kids in the classroom]," Ledgard said.
Melody Tspranis, UT3 intern and undergraduate coordinator, who is also a junior majoring in middle childhood education, said the series is an informal forum type of program.
"It brings people from the outside … to talk with College of Education students about different aspects of teaching that may not come out in a classroom setting," she said.
Ringholz said she came back to UT to help students prepare for their own teaching experiences.
"I feel like when I went through college, I didn't get enough information about what the first year is like," she said. "I wanted to help other people get a little bit of understanding."
Ledgard, Tspranis and Ringholz all agreed that nothing can really give you the experience you need to be a teacher until you become one.
"You can't really understand it until you're there, but the more help, the better," Ringholz said.
Janet Struble, UT3 program coordinator, said they will continue this series throughout the semester.
"The next one we are having Treva Jeffries, the science curriculum coordinator for Toledo Public Schools, and she's bringing students," she said. "She brings high school students, and our students can interact and talk with them and see what they expect of their teachers."
Tspranis said UT3 is a grant program through the United States Department of Education and its focus is helping students who will teach math and science.
Ledgard and Ringholz both graduated in the spring of 2007. Ledgard teaches math at Mctigue Middle School and at Early College High School. Ringholz teaches math at Lake Middle School.
"We try to prepare, but you can't really prepare for the situation until you're there," Tspranis said.
Be the first to comment on this article!