While reminiscing about their childhoods, many students possessed a specific memory of the one teacher who changed their lives, igniting a passion deep within them. What made these teachers so special? As education majors prepared to go out into the workforce and the classroom, they discovered exactly what constituted being such a teacher. Penny McGlawn, assistant professor of education, said she believed in a list of basic principles to guide teachers and that was why she taught the Principles of Learning and Teaching class, EDFD 311, a course designed to equip and challenge education majors. "It's a pretty intense class," McGlawn said. "They have to plan an entire year's worth of material. I really want them to know that this is a demandingjob; it is so rewarding. So wejust try to do things in the department that prepare them, not to just go out and survive in that first year of teaching, but to really thrive." Scotti Beth Lawson, a junior English major from New Orleans, expressed her gratitude for the class. "The class basically is preparing you to enter the teaching world," Lawson said. "From bell to bell, it's just working on bettering your skills, learning about how to do lesson plans, learning about just how to be a better teacher and preparing you for when you go into student teaching so that it's not so much a stressful transition as it is a demanding transition." In addition to preparing a year's worth of teaching ~llntA~t~ · IY\01\~ ·-h~~tt~.han I \Jw ld IA.p ((.OJ'IOfY\~ Getting hands-on experience in the classroom, junior English major Scotti Beth Lawson goes over grammatical errors. "My favorite part of tutoring was the challenge of learning how to speak with students who speak another language, conquering the language barrier," Lawson said. Kristi Soto material, students were required to spend 15 hours teaching adolescents. McGlawn said she believed the only way for students to get a real understanding of teaching was to spend time in the classroom practicing. According to Lawson, she gained a unique perspective on teaching through two of her students who were Chinese. "If you can conquer a language barrier, I'm pretty sure you can conquer anything," Lawson said. Junior Robyn Carter said the class was extremely beneficial for her because she got to learn how to work with different learning styles. "I have had to adapt to each child's need," Carter said. "I recommend [others] take the class very seriously and give it 100 percent." McGlawn wanted her students to understand and grasp that when they went out and faced challenges in classrooms, they as teachers could make all the difference. ''A child knows if they're loved or not loved," McGlawn said. ''A kid knows if they're cared about or not cared about. It's all about your disposition as a teacher. They can take those students that would be unmotivated, and because of how they teach, they can turn them on to learning." McGlawn hoped each of her students would develop valuable teaching skills because of the course, impacting countless children for the better in the future. Zachery L. Decker Providing one-on-one tutoring, junior early childhood education majorJeslyn Willis works with a Harding Academy student. Willis was in Penny McGlawn's EDFD 311 class, which required students to get 15 hours of tutoring during the semester. Kristi Soto Academics fT r
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