Just two weeks into the start of the school year, the Enterprise sat down with three of Blanchette Elementary School’s resident/teacher pairings for a “boots on the ground” perspective of their U.S. Prep experience.
Blanchette has five of the district’s 9 residents – three of whom are placed in fifth grade classrooms, teaching science, math and language arts.
The tight knit group has formed a kind of “dream team.”
“We eat lunch together, we talk the entire time, and I think we’re the loudest ones in that cafeteria,” resident Olivia Danheim said.
“They put us on level zero,” cooperating teacher Lillie Spiller joked.
They’ve bonded in ways that go beyond race, class, background, age, all hinging on one central point – the love of teaching and the desire to make a difference in the life of the child.
“One thing we were just all able to connect on immediately is just how much we care. Because we all want these kids to be better than us,” Danheim said. “I want them to have absolutely no wants in life. I don’t want them to struggle. I want them to put in that hard work, because I know they can. I know they can get there. And I want to help them get there.”
Where the team work really makes the dream work is in the classroom, where each pair has discovered an organic relationship of give and take that is already reaping positive rewards for teachers and students alike.
That relationship started before the first school bell rang.
Teachers and residents met during training sessions in July and for many, like Patrice Morris and Kalynn Dickert, it was instant chemistry.
“I don’t know how (they matched us up so well), because when I say that when we met at the Annex, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, the energy (between us), it was perfect.’ — It was perfect,” Morris said.
Ashley Walker, who teaches alongside 38-year veteran Patricia Blueford in her language arts class said, “we get along like peanut butter and jelly. I don’t know how they did it, but we just fit.”
It wasn’t just their paired teachers that made the residents feel welcome – the entire campus welcomed them in from day one – not as student teachers, but as peers.
Both teachers’ names are on the door and classes aren’t told their co-teacher is a college student.
“We want (students) to respect them the way they respect us and listen to them the way they listen to us,” Spiller said.
From day one of staff meetings, “You didn’t feel like they were (thinking), ‘Oh, here are the newbies.’ So the experience of just feeling like you’re already part of the school, that was really refreshing,” Walker said.
And while there is give and take in this initial period between observing and taking over lessons, the residents are already playing an active role in their classrooms.
While Spiller conducts a lesson, Danheim pulls aside struggling students and works with them in a smaller group.
“It has been a benefit (in my classroom), because two adult bodies are always better than one,” Spiller said. “It’s awesome on both ends. She’s getting the opportunity to work for the full year and get the real feel of being a teacher and at the same time it’s a blessing for me, because I have those extra hands, extra eyes, extra mind.”
In Blueford’s language arts class, a similar dynamic is at play. While she led a lesson, Walker circulated the room, monitoring students and giving assistance where needed.
“I’ve learned a lot in this short time – just classroom management and what that looks like, what it’s like to put a lesson plan together and everything that goes into that, what it looks like to maintain your classroom when you’re dealing with a discipline issue, the testing – Blueford has done an amazing job at modeling what that looks like,” Walker said.
She’s also been given the opportunity to incorporate her own strategies, like giving out tickets for candy when a student performs well, or blending other disciplines, such as math or science, into a reading lesson.
“With her being there, she’s able to have a small group while I’m able to have a small group while the rest of the kids are doing some other type of assignment. So, noticing those kids who are the struggling readers, she sees it right off. We can notice it before we even test them,” Blueford said. “I can get more students to be successful – I can get more students who may be at that first grade level up to third grade level by the end of the school year – coming to me with a first grade level and leaving at a third grade level, I feel like we’ve done our job – I’m happy, even though they’re a fifth grade student.”
In Morris’ science class, Dickert brings a heavy dose of creativity to the mix.
“Sometimes I think in the box, and she’s outside the box,” Morris said. “Where my 27-year veteran thinking self is like, ‘No, I just want to make it as easy as possible,’ she’s like, ‘No, let’s try this.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m supporting you on that.’ Her ideas are wonderful.”
In a typical day, Morris will lead their first class lesson then turn over the reins to Dickert for the next one or two classes while Morris monitors.
And having a second teacher in the classroom has allowed her to do hands-on experiments that would have been difficult for one person in a room of 17 to 20 students.
“The work we were doing today, there is no way I could have done that by myself – no way,” Morris said.
But Dickert’s energy and ideas have benefited Morris beyond the classroom.
After 27 years in education, “I was really, really drained,” Morris said. “I was at the point where I was talking, ‘I got three more years (until retirement),’ and actually this has really rejuvenated me.“
Even her husband sees a difference when she comes home and talks about her day, Morris said.
“This is the Patrice that I met 26 years ago. This is the Patrice that I saw who would come home and talk about this and this (that happened at school that day),” he recently told her.
“But that’s the energy that I have,” Morris said. “I really look forward to getting here at 7 o’clock in the morning, making sure my labs are ready, and (Dickert) is right behind me. Like today, we showed up at the same time, and our body language is like, ‘You ready?’ You ready?’ And we came in and made sure everything was together (for the first class).”
The experience is invaluable for the residents, whose prior field work was largely observational in nature.
“The teacher has never wanted us to be part of the lesson like we are here with this experience,” Danheim said. “We’re doing everything, whereas, before it was really just sitting in a corner, looking, not sure what we’re supposed to be doing.”
It’s also allowed them to build relationships with students in a way they never could as quiet observers.
“I love when they’re happy to see us when we come in,” Walker said.
On their first day of teaching, residents feel they’ll be going in with greater confidence and preparation.
“I now know what the first day of school is going to look like – where all that classroom management is happening and you’re setting those expectations. I get to know what STAAR testing and assessments and those morning routines are going to look like,” Danheim said. “We like to say that we’re sponges, and we’re just soaking it all in.”
They’re learning to think like a teacher, not a student, she said.
Even little things, like how to manage trips to the bathroom or what to do on morning duty can be a struggle for first-year teachers.
“The university setting is really passing the baton to those teachers in the classrooms where those (future) teachers will serve,” Saltmarsh said. “And it will be better for the entire community.”
“When we leave, these people are going to be the future, and we want to make sure our community is still getting it,” Spiller said. “We‘re taking the old school, the new school, and we are going to be the best school.”
