"I want to be a teacher" are the last words most people expect to hear from a Dartmouth student's mouth.
But eight seniors -- Tara Bennett, Corey Chatis, Deirdre Driscoll, Elizabeth Mawn, Elizabeth McGoldrick, Richard Sevilla, Richard Ouimet and Steve Zrike-- are currently enrolled in Dartmouth's teacher certification program and are teaching elementary and secondary school students.
The program pits Dartmouth students against classes of 15 to 30 students of all ages, forcing them to learn to teach in just one short term.
According to the student teachers, it is grueling, but they all love it.
"This is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had so far in my life," said Sevilla, who teaches fourth and fifth graders at the Seminary Hill School in West Lebanon. "It allows you to think about the bigger scope of things. There is more to life right now than studying -- making an impact on these [children] through the program."
It's a tough job
Director of the Elementary Teacher Education Program Randy Testa said although the program is rewarding, it is not easy."During full-time teaching, your friends will think you fell in a hole," Testa said. "The [student teachers] have a full plate."
The student teachers wake up before 7 a.m. every morning and do not return to campus until 5 p.m. During their hours out of the classroom, they spend time planning lessons and worrying about their students. Most of the teachers said they try to be in bed by 11 p.m.
"It really consumes you in everything you do," said Zrike, who teaches in a classroom across the hall from Sevilla. "I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about some of these kids. I sit in the frat basement every once in a while and just think about them."
Zrike's students like him, but worry about him too.
"When he said he was leaving next week, I almost cried," one of Zrike's fifth-grade students said. "I told him to visit at least 30 more times."
Although seniors this year are doing student teaching during their Winter term, the program will be changed after next year so student teaching will take place during Fall term of senior year instead.
The teacher prep program made the change because of students' limited time during their senior year. Also, student teachers can be better prepared for their students by taking part in beginning of the school year orientation, Testa said.
According to the Director of the Secondary Teacher Education Program Nona Lyons, the time in the classroom can be the most difficult.
"The big thing is that you're confronted with the complex realities of schools," Lyons said. "We all think we know what school is like because we were there, but it's a very complex process."
McGoldrick, who teaches at White River Junction Elementary School, said that a surprise she encountered in teaching was "being called a 'bitch' and being yelled at by fifth graders." She said she often finds herself fighting feelings of "visceral anger."
"Working with fifth graders challenged me in really different ways than four-year-olds," she said. "With fifth graders, you don't explain [discipline-related] things. You just tell them to 'stop it.'"
According to Sevilla, children with broken families and other problems at home are the most difficult.
Sevilla said he can tell whether students have domestic problems "through their misbehavior and a lack of respect for elders and authority. You can tell a lot of the parental concerns through their homework and what they bring back to the classroom."
Sevilla's students said they think he handles discipline problems well.
"I like how he doesn't yell at us," one of Sevilla's fourth-grade students said. "He [scolds us] in a funny voice. I like his Kermit the Frog voice."
Marion Waters, Sevilla's cooperating teacher at the Seminary Hill School, also likes the way Sevilla handles disciplinary issues.
Sevilla "was so quiet, I never thought he could maintain interest, but he has gained a mutual respect with the students," she said. "He sort of grew into the role."
Mawn, who teaches tenth and twelfth graders at Lebanon High School, also said if a teacher is polite and calm, the students will respect him or her more.
Learning on both sides
The children and the student teachers are not the only ones learning. The cooperating teachers also said they are introduced to new teaching methods and learning styles through the Dartmouth student teachers.
"Student teaching is the epitome of teaching," said Kate Conner, Zrike's cooperating teacher at the Seminary Hill School. "If I can teach and learn from someone who is learning to teach, it is the ultimate."
Most of the student teachers do not plan on teaching for the rest of their lives. Many want to teach for a few years and then move on to education-related consulting or administration. Chatis, who teaches at Mascoma High School, said she has considered working for the government's Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
But Mawn said she wants to teach for the rest of her life.
"You just have to trust the thing inside of you that wants to be a teacher," she said. "Even if you think, 'I can't do this,' you can't listen to that voice, and you have to believe in the part of you that wants to."
Probably the people who appreciate the program most are the students.
Ouimet "is awesome and he always keeps his promises," one of Ouimet's ninth-grade Mascoma High School students said. "Sometimes he gets too involved and pretends to be dumb to be on our level, but we know he's wicked smart."
"Our normal teacher is not as into it as [Ouimet]," another one of his students said.
Testa and Lyons said they know the student teachers enjoy the children as much as the children like them.
"The experience is a moral journey," he said. "The little children make wonderful teachers of the teachers."
Students interested in the College's teacher certification program apply in their junior year after having taken four education classes and one psychology course.
If accepted, the students then enroll in two more education classes, one which requires the students to observe an elementary school class once each week. This past fall, the program accepted eight of the 10 students who applied.
