Sarah Carter: Student Teaching and Student Learning

As a senior English Education major from William Woods University, this semester I have begun my student teaching experience. I am privileged to be teaching at the local high school a mere five minutes down the road from the university. I have two freshmen classes, three sophomore classes, and one senior class. On paper it looks like a typical experience that thousands of education majors every year go through to graduate. In a way, it is just that. I'm a typical student teacher, with typical classrooms, and I suppose (although I like to think differently) typical students.

Typical, ordinary, everyday, mid-west students. They don't want to be in school. They don't want to do homework. They don't want to listen to directions, follow rules, be quiet, or even dress appropriately. These kids are different in everyway imaginable. Last week, as I watched a boy with electric blue hair shuffle down the hallway, I couldn't imagine what was going on in his head when he made the decision to dye naturally blond hair the color of an Easter egg gone awry. Two days later, as a particularly annoying student asked the same question for the hundredth time in a row, I wondered why the directions weren't getting through. Everyday I watch as the kids run, saunter, walk, and, believe it or not, skip down the hall by my classroom. Then, I wait while a girl, too small for her age, clutches her walker and struggles down the newly emptied hallway.

It makes you think watching and interacting with all these kids. Most people are scared of them. When I tell people I'm student teaching at the high school people are struck like a deer in the headlights with shock that anyone in their right mind would choose such a thing over those adorable elementary school kids. I've learned to just smile because I've discovered something. The secret is these kids, these out of control teenagers, just want to be loved. They only want attention. They only seek a little guidance. Most importantly of all, every one of them is a child of God. Every one of them is the product of Creator God's imagination. They each have potential. They each have gifts. It is up to us, not just the educators, but every one of us as Christians in the world today, not to be counted in the millions of people worldwide who berate and belittle the youth of the world. We as Christians are called upon to love each other. Some days the students I see practically drive me up the wall, but then I have to stop and remind myself: every one of them is a gift from God to me, shaping my life and influencing me as much or more than I am reaching them.

Sarah Carter is in her fourth year as a HELM Leadership Fellow and is a member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Garden City, Kansas.