During the 2023-2024 school year there have been multiple full time and part time student teachers. A full time one is Miss Meyers. She is a student teacher for Mrs. Benvenuto who teaches Civics, Honors World Cultures, and Geography. That gives Miss Meyers the chance to teach civics and geography as a way to get the jist of teaching.
Miss Meyers has been student teaching at Hamburg High School since the end of January. She is currently attending college at Kutztown University since her junior year. During her sophomore and freshman year she attended RACC. When she started college, her idea was to become an English teacher, but she later realized that she was no longer interested in that but rather interested in becoming a social studies teacher. Her major is currently Secondary Education in Social Studies.
She decided to go to school to become a teacher because she wants to “Make a difference to someone.” Along with that she made a student teaching goal to make a difference in at least one student’s life before she has to go back to school, which she thinks she has already accomplished. Student teaching has also been a huge way for Miss Meyers to understand teaching as she has only learned content at college rather than how to teach. Being a student teacher also really opens her up to a classroom dynamic and how to adjust. Overall her favorite part of being a student teacher is being able to teach students and connect with them but also because of Mrs. Benvenuto and all of the help and tips she has given her.
Mrs. Benvenuto has been given this opportunity to have a student teacher due to having finished her masters degree and by upgrading it due to having already taught ten years. Before Mrs. Benvenuto became a teacher she was also a student teacher, at Hamburg under the guidance of Mr. Zimmerman. Mrs. Benvenuto was a student teacher in 2014 and ended up having the students that she student taught in their graduating year of 2018. She has been able to use many of the different teaching techniques she learned from Mr. Zimmerman to help get a basis of how to teach.
Overall student teaching is a very eye opening experience for students going to be a teacher as it gives them a hands on understading of what to expect when teaching. Some of the tips from Mrs. Benvenuto and Miss Meyers for students who want to go to school to be a teacher are to “Give it your all, focus on education, be flexible, find a way to balance school and work, and to have room for growth.”
