The number of student teachers at Southern Adventist University remains high during the 2018-2019 school year.
There are approximately 20 students currently student teaching this semester, and there will be around 30 student teachers in the 2019 winter semester.
Prerequisites for student teaching generally include set scores on the Praxis exams, completion of all required courses and an acceptable GPA. The current GPA requirement is 3.0, but starting in the 2019-2020 catalog, the GPA requirement will be lowered to 2.75.
Bonnie Eder, the interim dean of the School of Education and Psychology, voiced her opinion on the importance of student teaching.
“It gives them real practice with real students,” Eder said. “We do a lot of role plays and simulations but [student teaching] gives them the opportunity to be under a mentor teacher and practice their skills. It’s a wonderful experience for students.”
Student teachers spend their semester in two schools. During the first eight weeks of the semester, the student teacher is placed in a public school. In the second eight weeks, they transition to a Seventh-day Adventist school. The purpose of this is to allow students to experience different atmospheres and gain insight into both types of schools.
Alexis Jones is an English major with a teaching licensure concentration, who will be student teaching in the 2019 fall semester.
“I’m most looking forward to classroom management because I feel like that’s something you can’t practice,” Jones said. “You have to do it in the moment. You’re teaching, and you have to be watching students at the same time.”
Jones and Eder both recognize how beneficial is it is to have a mentor teacher while student teaching.
“I really liked the mentor teachers that I worked with during my observations,” Jones said. “I think that they were very helpful and tried to prepare me. They were more than willing to give me resources.”