"A Story to Tell"

All teachers and “pre-teachers” agree that teaching needs to be experienced and not taught. Randy Guthmiller, a first-year teacher at G. Stanley in Papillion feels that the student teaching experience should be introduced much earlier than it is in today’s curriculum. Guthmiller says, “It should be the first thing you do. So you can weed out those that don’t want to teach.”

Traditionally, the first three and one-half years of an education degree are devoted to teaching students how to teach.

The way that Guthmiller feels is also a common reaction for many early teachers. Tiffant Shellberg, a graduate of Dana College, has been teaching for two and one-half years. Shellberg says, “Lots of everyday things like keeping kids quiet and walking them through the halls were very hard.” These everyday things cannot really be taught well inside the three-year block of pre-education.

Dr. Diane Mann, an education professor at Dana, says, “Some people are just simply born teachers.” Dr. Mann and others who teach how to teach believe that this is always a constant concern for their field. Ideally the Observation or Teachers Assistant classes are supposed to give students that glimpse into the world of teaching before their third and fourth years.

Bob Parsons, a non-traditional student in his final year at Dana says, “Most teaching classes, whether they be Observations or Student Teaching, are what the student makes of them. This thinking goes well with the teachings of Dr. Mann. In this manner the Dana education department believes that students can be taught much but ultimately the responsibility for each individual’s education lies with the individual.