"Meet students where they are, and take them to another place" - Dr. James D. Anderson
A Little About Our ExperiencesWe all decided to go into our community to gain experiences and make connections with people outside of the University of Illinois. It is important to bring your knowledge from the classroom into your community placement, but at the same time it is also important to use your experiences to help you grow as a future educator. In our journey within these communities we have all grown as people and as teachers. We have learned a lot from our placements and we hope to continue to develop relationships with the members of the communities we are a part of.
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EDUC 201: Identity & DifferenceEDUC 201 was offered for the first time in Fall 2015. This course was taught by Dr. Cris Mayo and will taught by Dr. Christopher Span in Fall 2016. The focus of the course is mainly on identity and difference in education, along with reflecting on your own learning and role as a future educator. These topics were tied to our local community here in Champaign/Urbana as well as our communities back at home. This helped us, as future educators, learn the importance of connecting with the communities around the schools that we teach in.
In this course, students were placed at a community placement site in the local Champaign and Urbana communities in order to learn how to strengthen bonds between communities and schools. Some placements were on campus, while others were off campus. Alongside the fact that the students’ volunteering shows the importance of school and community relationships, some of our local communities around the University are in need, and volunteering will help to strengthen our bond with our own community here. “The hope was that EDUC 201 would give students research-based information, theories, experiential learning, and the ability to network with one another to problem solve because you eventually will all be teachers and will be working with each other.” - Dr. Cris Mayo, EDUC 201 Professor
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EPS 199: Community EngagementThis is a course that is an extension of EDUC 201 in the sense that it is a “community engagement” class. It was made to allow those that wanted to continue their work in our community, throughout the spring semester, while earning university credit for doing so. While looking at the title of EDUC 201, “Identity and Difference in Education”, we wanted to further encompass our goals as future educators in our community placements as well as our own identities within them; critically and analytically looking at them throughout this course. Created and led by Shana Riddick, whose goal in this course was to continue as well as create relationships with the surrounding Champaign and Urbana communities. EPS 199 allowed for the furthering of our skills in entering and being a part of communities.
"The idea for the course was established in the fall semester. Through the support of College of Education administration it was decided that a course would be created for anyone from EDUC 201 who wanted to remain connected to a community placement site. We wanted to acknowledge all of the work students completed in EDUC 201 and give them a space to continue unpacking and reflecting upon their experiences engaging with local communities."
- Shana Riddick, EPS 199 Creator & Instructor |
Student Voices with Claire Yerkey
On Why She Chose Education
Ever since I was a little girl, I always loved helping people. It gave me this great joy that I couldn’t find in anything else I did in my life. Being in the school system, I thought about how much teachers help others and the amount of people they are able to help year after year. If a teacher has about 25 students in their classroom, they impact 100 students in just four years. And that’s just a direct impact. The students aren’t the only ones impacted through their instruction. The students’ families are affected, the community is affected, and the people that all of these people interact with in the future are affected just through one teacher. I thought, and still think, that teachers have the most important job in the world.
I hope to establish a solid foundation for the education of all my students and make a positive impact on my students and community. Wanting to teach specifically 1st and 2nd grade, I will be able to access the beginning of children’s learning potential. With this role, I will strive to create an understanding and a drive in them to learn more about themselves and who they can become.
All of my elementary teachers have reinforced my dream to become a teacher. The job of teacher is so influential but more importantly, a teacher possesses the power to create a learning atmosphere that is creative, and thus an interest in education is instilled in children. Something about working in a grey cubicle for hours on end causes me to want to run away screaming. But all of my elementary school teachers had such creative rooms that always made me want to learn more. The difference between my middle school teachers really showed me what kind of teacher I wanted to be, one driven with passion and positivity instead of just lecturing in the classroom. My high school teachers really showed me the importance of having good relationships with one’s students, specifically my performing arts teachers. Picking one or a few teachers that influenced me is extremely difficult—all of the teachers I’ve had have impacted me in different ways, shaping me in different ways. All of them have showed me different teaching styles, different ways to rule your classroom, different learning environments. Honestly, first impressions of a teacher’s classroom can influence one’s view of the class and the teacher immensely.
Through all of the things I have learned from my teachers, I hope to be the teacher that has an invigorating, respected, fun classroom atmosphere. I want to create an environment that the students look forward to coming to and stimulates their want to learn. I want my students to see how much I love them and how much goodwill and prosperity I hope for their futures. If I can create a classroom that generates learning through love, I know I will be doing what I am supposed to do in this world.
I hope to establish a solid foundation for the education of all my students and make a positive impact on my students and community. Wanting to teach specifically 1st and 2nd grade, I will be able to access the beginning of children’s learning potential. With this role, I will strive to create an understanding and a drive in them to learn more about themselves and who they can become.
All of my elementary teachers have reinforced my dream to become a teacher. The job of teacher is so influential but more importantly, a teacher possesses the power to create a learning atmosphere that is creative, and thus an interest in education is instilled in children. Something about working in a grey cubicle for hours on end causes me to want to run away screaming. But all of my elementary school teachers had such creative rooms that always made me want to learn more. The difference between my middle school teachers really showed me what kind of teacher I wanted to be, one driven with passion and positivity instead of just lecturing in the classroom. My high school teachers really showed me the importance of having good relationships with one’s students, specifically my performing arts teachers. Picking one or a few teachers that influenced me is extremely difficult—all of the teachers I’ve had have impacted me in different ways, shaping me in different ways. All of them have showed me different teaching styles, different ways to rule your classroom, different learning environments. Honestly, first impressions of a teacher’s classroom can influence one’s view of the class and the teacher immensely.
Through all of the things I have learned from my teachers, I hope to be the teacher that has an invigorating, respected, fun classroom atmosphere. I want to create an environment that the students look forward to coming to and stimulates their want to learn. I want my students to see how much I love them and how much goodwill and prosperity I hope for their futures. If I can create a classroom that generates learning through love, I know I will be doing what I am supposed to do in this world.