Sterling High School has been seeing many new changes and additions since the start of the school year in August. A few of these new additions include new student teachers Kennedy Markham and Collin Grady.
Markham and Grady both started their student teaching at the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Markham’s cooperating teacher is currently special education teacher Sara McCue, helping with special education math, whereas Grady’s cooperating teacher is physical education teacher Dale Dykeman, helping with physical education.
Student teachers typically have different kinds of jobs that they are meant to do from day to day. Markham shared, “I started off teaching myself the content, grading papers, and teaching a short five-minute bellringer each class. Now, I plan lessons alongside Ms. McCue and teach every class independently.”
Passion is something that many new teachers and people going into education need to make the most of their work.
“My motivation to work in the classroom stems from my passion for helping others and my love for learning,” said Markham.
When pursuing a job that involves education, there are many motives that can back up a person’s choice to pursue said job. Grady’s motivation to pursue education is “to try to make students more comfortable and capable of participating in physical activity than they were before coming into class.”
Throughout the first few month’s of Grady’s student teaching, he has found that there are some benefits to it.
“Some pros to being in the classroom are interacting with the students, hearing the funny stories they tell, and co-teaching with Mrs. Ruiz.”
Grady also wishes to continue his education, looking to teach P.E., but if that doesn’t work out he would “just get a job as a fortune cookie writer.”
Both Markham and Grady are very passionate about what they hope to accomplish through their student teaching. They are both looking forward to continuing their work in the field of education and are excited to see what lies ahead for them.
