A buzz of conversation fills the classroom as students ponder problems regarding triangles and decimals. But among the freshman geometry students, there is another kind of student: a student teacher who weaves between tables answering questions and checking in with everyone.
Student teachers become teachers who will support and educate the next generation. To gain experience to support the next generation, students from colleges such as Boston University and Boston College spend a semester taking over classes at the high school to gain invaluable practice teaching an actual class. By gaining experience planning lessons, teaching and grading, they are able to get a feel for their teaching style and understand what works in the classroom.
Student teacher Hannah Grossman is currently a student at Boston University and is completing her bachelor of science in math education. Grossman said this kind of experience is invaluable and vital to prepare for a career in education.
“I am trying to be a teacher, and the only place to learn how to be a teacher really is in the classroom,” Grossman said. “I’ve taken a lot of pedagogy, classes on how to teach, how to teach math specifically, and that teaches nothing until you’re actually in a classroom, and you have to do lesson planning, and you have to put together materials and stuff like that.”
Supervising teachers also play an important role in the growth and development of student teachers. They help guide them and give them useful feedback so that the student teachers can improve.
Imad-Eddine Abselem, a freshman math teacher and supervising teacher, said helping someone else learn how to teach has been a new experience that made him more aware of his own teaching style.
“It’s been interesting trying to explain all of those [teaching strategies] to another person because I’ve never had to vocalize or verbalize it before; it’s just something that you think about in your head and sometimes you do it subconsciously without even thinking,” Abselem said.
The intent behind both Grossman and student teacher Elizabeth Sockwell’s teaching aspirations is clear: to become empathetic and inspired educators who will make students feel seen and supported.
Sockwell said her experiences help her serve her students better because she knows what kind of stress high school students are under.
“Students are going through so much: doing extracurriculars, trying to create an impressive background so [they] can get into a good college and doing all these things. So I just really understand what it’s like to go to a school like Brookline High, and I want to be able to support students to make sure they feel heard and feel supported by their teachers,” Sockwell said.
Sockwell said one mentality she wants to impart to her students is the growth mindset, which is the belief that you can learn from a struggle or a failure.
“That’s something I really like: any failure you face will ultimately lead to success if you learn from it,” Sockwell said. “And that’s a really powerful message I want my students to know. It’s like, no failure, no quiz you bomb, no test you take and you don’t do well on defines you. The only thing that defines you is your ability to keep going in the face of those failures.”
