2 minute read
Student Teaching Experience
— by Morgan Land
My experience with progressive education started with student teaching at Wickliffe Progressive Elementary in Upper Arlington, Ohio. I spent months anxiously waiting on where I would be placed for student teaching and never did it cross my mind that the school would follow a progressive philosophy. When I received the email that stated I would be placed at Wickliffe, I immediately googled what a progressive school was. Google gave me very basic definitions of what progressive education is and I just couldn’t believe that this isn’t something we learned more about in the course work of my masters program.
My wonderful host teacher was supportive in helping me understand what it means to be a progressive teacher. Through readings, such as Loving Learning by Tom Little and Katherine Ellison, I slowly started to grasp what progressive education was, but when I was asked by peers what it was, I couldn’t give a specific definition until after I was immersed in the practices. Throughout the three months of student teaching, I learned more about progressive education and myself as an educator than I could have imagined. I have never experienced school the way I experienced it at Wickliffe. Students were a part of the decisions within our room, it felt more like a community than it did a classroom. When I was an elementary student we were given the classroom rules, told how the room was run, and given assignments to do without a choice. This is not how Wickliffe was run, students were a part of every decision from classroom rules to helping come up with activities for our lessons. The school was entirely student-centered and that inspired me as an educator to continue this way of thinking into my next position.
— Morgan Land
Wickliffe did more for me than just cross off a requirement to graduate. This school taught me that students should have a voice in their education and rather than playing the role of the teacher, I can play a role as a peer and mentor in our classroom community. When I am asked now for a definition of progressive education, I smile and think back to my time at Wickliffe. I think about my host teacher who let me be myself and learn with the students. I think about every single staff member at Wickliffe who is passionate about progressive education and inspired me anytime I walked into their classrooms. I simply tell my peers who ask me about progressive education that it is a community where teachers and students work together to develop skills based on our interests and talents. Now I teach in a traditional school setting, but every decision I make comes from what I learned during student teaching in a progressive setting. It has changed who I am as an educator; I now look at education as a chance to create a community
with my students where we can learn from each other and not one where I stand and
lecture for six hours a day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Morgan Land is a 5th grade ELA/SS teacher for Southwestern City Schools in Columbus, Ohio. She is a first year teacher who graduated last year with a Masters in Education from Western Governor’s University. E-mail: mland23@wgu.edu
