KENT, Ohio — As school districts across the state continue to work on their back to school plans, faculty at Kent State University are also preparing student teachers for the changes they’ll find in the classroom this year.
Jennifer Walton-Fisette, the Director of Teacher Education and a professor in physical education teaching education at KSU, says they’re going to try to give as much support as they can to student teachers to help them navigate this new world of hybrid learning and hopefully keep their stress levels to a minimum.
Alyssa Hunt is ready to get back in the classroom.
“I, for one, am just grateful to continue working towards my degree because obviously everything is so up in the air,” said Hunt, a master’s student at KSU working towards a degree in early childhood education.
Hunt will be a student teacher at Hudson City Schools during this upcoming school year. She, like many others, needs that student teaching experience to graduate but wasn’t sure it would happen because of the pandemic.
“But they're gonna allow me back in and we're doing the level system based on what our county’s at which could change at any moment,” Hunt said.
Those kinds of changes are what faculty at Kent State are trying to prepare students for.
“One of them may be face to face five days a week, one might be hybrid and one of their peers might be fully online. And so we have to provide as much support as possible for them as they experience this and what's planned for today may change tomorrow, may change September 30,” Walton Fisette said.
Walton-Fisette says they’ll be working alongside students to help them, especially with remote and online learning.
“Trying to make sure that they not only get the support, but their anxiety and stress levels are kept in check as they go through a lot of unknowns because there's a lot that we don't know,” Walton-Fisette said.
But Aaron Massey, who is also working towards his master’s in early childhood education, says being students themselves could be an advantage when it comes to navigating these new teaching styles.
“We have a lot of experience with an online learning environment. And so we have a pretty good understanding of a lot of the technological things that need to be worked out in addition to instructional needs for the children and how to navigate through that, you know, online space,” Massey said.
Jade Jarvis is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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