Student teachers take next steps toward career

Joey Kucker and Brianne Wawro are two student teachers at Big Spring High school getting their experience throughout the 8 weeks they’re staying here. Wowro and Kucker are both seniors at Shippensburg University.

Kucker is passionate about history and has been like that ever since he was younger. His interest in history started with being very intrigued by video games and movies, and he looked at WW2 to be his perfect blockbuster movie with the bad guy. He hopes to be able to teach about the civil rights in the future. Kucker came to Big Spring for a student teaching opportunity to get real experience in an actual classroom. He said “Being a student teacher is basically like having a fancy internship.”

Student teachers are usually responsible for copying papers and different projects, helping with different assignments, and finally teaching. The student teachers are required to shadow in two classes in their field and then shadow two out of their field. Kucker had the chance to shadow Spanish and math, “The teaching is very different when it comes to different classes and there’s a reason I’m not trying to become math teacher.” Kucker has been teaching Tim Kireta’s Honors American Studies class, and he said, “The first week of teaching is absolutely terrifying. It takes getting used to.” He said that “You can’t really be taught how to teach in front of a class at college; it is something you have to actually do.”  

Student teachers get most of their experience of teaching from student teaching, and it helps them realize if they want to go through and get their degree. Wowro didn’t always know that she wanted to be a teacher. Originally, she majored in Biology and then decided it wasn’t for her. Though when she was younger she thought about being a history teacher. When she started studying it in college, she was able to study modern history which isn’t always taught in a high school setting. She got to see many sides of the education in Big Spring and enjoyed teaching about the Cold War. As a student you have different assigned classes and Wowro was assigned to shadow a Jazz Studies class and she thought it was very different then any classes that she has seen in the past, but she still found it to be interesting.

Wowro said, “Being a student teacher means I have many responsibilities including meeting with faculty, working with different teachers, working with kids, and doing lessons.” Wowro said, “Big Spring is bigger than my high school there are so many opportunities.” She also said that she thought the ceramic and the innovation lab were very different and unique to our school and helped to give other opportunities.

Wowro graduated with a class of 48 so she found Big Spring to be very large in size. Kucker is from Carlisle High School so he found our school to be similar in size but still is finding the same amount of student teaching experience. Big Spring is always welcoming when it comes to hosting student teachers. Scott Anderson, a history teacher at the school said, “It’s good to have one, it’s helpful for you to stop and look at your teaching style and to help you remember why you do what you do.” When speaking to students they had nothing but good things to say. Elizabeth Bumbarger, senior, said, “ I like the ability to have more then one teaching style in a class.”

Big Spring sees new student teachers every year and they always welcome them with open arms and many opportunities.