printer-friendly

inquiry

A place in the real world

Bethel graduates return as students in the teacher education program.

by Melanie Zuercher

Sometimes the best-laid plans simply get postponed.

“We tell our students who are interested in teaching, ‘Get your certification while you’re here [at Bethel],’” says Allen Jantz ’84, associate professor of education and chair of Bethel College’s Department of Teacher Education. And of course, many do that. A small but significant minority, however, don’t.

“They start the program and then they decide they don’t want to continue,” Allen says. “We give them a lot of grief, and tell them, ‘You’ll be back. It’s OK if you don’t want to teach right away, but [finish the program] while you’re here.’

“They graduate, and they get out into the job market,” he continues, “and they find out what they got their degree in isn’t what they want to spend their time doing.”

Mariah Thompson got a degree in 2006 in health management and is now in the special education certification program at Bethel. She did take some education classes during her four years on campus but didn’t complete a teacher education program, even though, she says now, “I knew when I graduated that’s probably what I’d end up doing.”

Mariah grew up in Newton, graduated from Newton High School and had only lived out of Kansas once – after her first year at Bethel, she took a year off to be a nanny for a family in California. She became very close to the family, who had a child with Down Syndrome. When she graduated from Bethel in 2006, she says, “I needed a change of pace. I needed to figure out where God wanted me to be.”

The family from California had, in the meantime, moved to New Zealand. So that was where Mariah decided to go. She managed a Curves® women’s fitness center, which was fine for a while. But one day, she realized, “It wasn’t what I was supposed to do [forever]. I needed to get a big-girl job.”

She came back home and is now taking coursework. She will do her student teaching in spring semester 2010.

“Special education is a little more like playing,” she says. “For example, I worked with one little girl on learning in, out and on top of by using a playhouse.”

Once she has completed her certification, she’ll be qualified to teach adapted physical education. Her future plans could include going on for a master’s degree in order to be able to teach in an SMD (severe multiple disability) setting.

Kelly Simmons, a 2001 health management Bethel graduate, already has a master’s degree – she got a second bachelor’s degree as well as a master’s degree, both in sports administration, from Wichita State University – but is now interested in pursuing a different branch of education.

Her goal is to be able to teach adaptive special education at the high school level. She has finished her two semesters of coursework through Bethel and Associated Colleges of Central Kansas (ACCK) and just began her student teaching, at Benton Elementary School and North High School, both in Wichita.

“I have worked [for several years] with a special population,” she says, “including a year-long internship with Special Olympics in Wichita. I loved that and decided then and there I was going to get special ed. certification. Going through Bethel was the quickest way to get the degree.”

As the assistant women’s soccer coach at Bethel, Kelly notes that it has been “kind of interesting to have some of the players in my class,” although it has tended to be more from the men’s soccer team.

Her desire to teach special education at the high school level stems in part from her experience with Special Olympics. “I like that age of kids,” she says. “I feel that there’s a shortage [of special ed. teachers] at the high school level, that most people want to work with younger kids so they can [see] more of a difference.”

In addition to Kelly and Mariah, Cara Dexter, a graduate of Friends University, is currently pursuing special education certification at Bethel.

There are also three Bethel graduates who decided to return for certification to be able to teach high school – Julia Fromm, a 2008 graduate in English and history, Annie Hasan, a 2006 graduate in history, and Braden Conrad-Hiebner, a 2007 graduate in German and history.

“I had these plans,” Braden says, “but I guess I should know by now that sometimes other plans come up. I was going to go to Germany and really learn the language, then come back and go to graduate school. But then I started dating someone.” Last May, Braden and that someone, Aislinn Conrad ’07, got married.

“Teaching had always interested me,” Braden says, “so I decided to pursue it, with a focus on history and government.”

Braden has completed his coursework for secondary education certification – “I had all the history classes but needed education classes, and also some work in government, sociology, macroeconomics, things like that.” He just began student teaching at Wichita Heights High School.

“It’s a new experience, being in such a big school,” he says. His own high school, Heartland Community School in Henderson, Neb., had 125 students in four grades, while Heights has 1,400. “I really like interacting with the students.”

“Braden was off our radar [for teacher education] when he was first at Bethel,” Allen says, “but he’s going to be a phenomenal teacher.

“The ones who’ve gone out and gotten some life experience – there’s not a bad one in the bunch,” Allen says. “Maybe their Bethel experience helped them leave with open eyes, and then when they had a chance to look around, they said, ‘I can make the world a better place.’ Now they’re ready.”

He expects to see students continue to come back for education certification in these numbers or higher. “It’s becoming more common,” he says. “Partly it’s the economy.”

In the meantime, Bethel teacher education staff will continue to encourage students on the standard four-year track to complete a teacher education program, while gladly working with those who come back for it later. “Teacher training can help you in any field in which you deal with people, from little people through adults,” Allen says.

“We’ll always need teachers, and we always need more teachers,” he continues. “We need more Bethel teachers – the world needs more Bethel graduates. That’s based on the quality of students we get into the program, which leads to the quality of teachers we put out.”