Ready, Set, Teach

ORANGEFIELD - Ready, Set, Teach is a student teaching program for juniors and seniors who are interested in becoming a teacher.

The goal of the program is to prepare potential teachers for the journey ahead. Kind of a “dip your toes in the water before you swim” sort of thing. 

The students meet in a classroom at the high school with teacher Mrs. Spears every Monday morning. During this time they discuss their experiences over the past week, come up with fun activities for the children to do, and are also given tips by Mrs. Spears on how to improve their teaching methods.

The students must come up with three activities for the children and their mentors fill out an evaluation sheet at the end of every six weeks to judge how the students are moving along. Mrs. Spears determines the grade the students receive in the class based on this criteria.

This program has around fifteen aspiring teachers, and every single one of them is ecstatic to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity. 

The rest of the week days, Tuesday-Friday, the student teachers are placed in their classrooms and are given the chance to teach younger children as well as be a role model to them. Hannah Gower, 6th grade student teacher for Ms. Standridge said, “I love it, the children make my day.”

This is Hannah’s second year to participate in the program, so she has the privilege of staying with her students for two class periods instead of one like the other student teachers. 

This program is a good learning experience as well as a fun one for the future teachers. The mentors are being very supportive of their students and try their hardest to help them make the big decision “Do I really want to be a teacher?”