Students as teachers

At the beginning of second semester, Mt. Vernon gave a warm welcome to two student teachers from Ball State. These teachers are Ms. Genders and Mrs. Freeman. They both are completing their student teaching in the English department, under Mrs. Stindle, Mrs. Schiller and Mr. Ragan. After being at MV for awhile now, it’s time to get to know a little bit about them and their opinion of their time here.

There are fun facts about each of these students teachers that they want their students to know. Ms. Genders enjoys concerts, especially Fall Out Boy, and is a huge “Hamilton” fan. She also has a fur baby named Molly who she loves dearly. Ms. Genders enjoys the silly nicknames a few of her students have made up for her. Before Ms. Genders wanted to become an English teacher, she wanted to be a pop star, then a dolphin trainer, and finally, an English teacher.

Mrs. Freeman also has some fun facts. These include her being married for a year and a half now. She also has a three legged cat named Kibbles, who was formerly attacked by dogs so was named after the dog food, Kibbles and Bits, as well as a three legged dog named Sadie. Mrs. Freeman works at Cracker Barrel, but does not know anything about Brad’s wife.

“I have enjoyed my time here,” said Ms. Genders. “It’s been a learning experience for me and my students as well.”

Mrs. Freeman agrees, stating that she really likes the school, even though it has been different from her past experiences. She still is comfortable due to the similarity of MV to her old high school.

“My favorite aspect of doing my teaching here at Mt. Vernon,” said Mrs. Freeman, “would probably be getting to use all of the technology and programs. I’ve never used things such as Google Classroom, and I can now use that in my teaching.”

Ms. Genders had a different outlook on her favorite part of teaching at MV.

“There’s a lot to choose from I feel,” began Ms. Genders, “Probably just the support that I get from my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Stindle, and just the staff in general.”

This experience, they say, has been furthering their knowledge of teaching, and the specific answers from Mrs. Freeman and Ms. Genders were fairly similar.

“This experience definitely has furthered my knowledge of teaching,” said Ms. Genders. “It’s one way to learn in a class but to actually do the teaching is so different.”

Mrs. Freeman agreed.

“You can talk about teaching all you want to, but it is nothing compared to being a student teacher,” said Mrs. Freeman. “You learn all these methods and then realize with different classes and students that some would totally work and others would definitely not. It’s a really good thing to have this experience before I become a teacher.”

Overall, the two have had a successful teaching experience at Mt. Vernon. Their last day at MV will be May 5th, so make sure to wish them well in their endeavors before they go.