Program gives future educators hands-on classroom experience
Ms. Imani with her students
The Baldwin-Whitehall School District is committed to empowering the next generation of educators — a need that is increasingly important, with a shortage of teachers nationally and in our region. Through an innovative program at Baldwin High School, young people are given real-world opportunities to gain teaching experience while still students themselves.
The pre-school program at Baldwin High School provides students who are interested in careers in childcare or education hands-on experience through facilitating a program for children under the guidance of Ms. Pfatteicher. As part of this program, students have visited and assisted in classrooms at McAnnulty Elementary School. In Ms. Lippert’s kindergarten classroom, Imani, a junior at BHS, volunteered for 2 hours each Friday. Ms. Imani’s time in Ms. Lippert’s classroom was so successful that Ms. Pfatteicher piloted a student teaching program for BHS seniors interested in pursuing a career in education. Ms. Imani has been able to continue in Ms. Lippert’s classroom throughout her senior year. Lippert explains, “Imani and I developed a great relationship last year, and after seeing how awesome she was with the kids, I really wanted to have her back in my classroom for the current school year.”
Ms. Imani spends 2 hours in the classroom Monday-Thursday. She has progressed from observing and assisting with language lessons, to teaching them herself. “Imani has put in a lot of hard work this year learning about our kindergarten ELA curriculum CKLA and our phonemic awareness program. She reads through the manual thoroughly, and we discuss the content and teaching methods. We have been running centers, co-planning together, trying new things!” says Lippert.
This program is a powerful way of enabling educators to share their love of teaching, which has a dual benefit of developing future educators and energizing their own experience in the classroom. Lippert reflects, “I am so grateful that Ms. Pfatteicher has introduced this program and has given me the opportunity to work with Imani! Being able to have her in my classroom, teach her, have discussions with her, and learn with her has helped me as an educator. My pre-service teaching experiences were some of the most memorable and influential experiences. I had wonderful mentors, and I always wanted to give that back to other pre-service teachers. I want our future teachers to experience the joy and love of teaching.”
The student teacher is beloved by the kindergarteners. Lippert shares, “The students LOVE Ms. Imani. They are always asking about her and asking when she will be in our classroom! Ms. Imani has such positive and fun energy that the students take to, and she is great at keeping them engaged.” Imani will not only make an impact on students in the future, she’s helping students today.