Monday, April 20, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3
1
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State and Local
isl
real classroom experience
Course gives students taste of teaching
By Lawson Reilly
Reporter
■ Anyone watching Mary Nesmith’s
' kindergarten class in Ben Milam El-
Ibientary School will notice that one
iBthe “pupils” is larger than the av-
Bage 5- or 6-year-old.
IBEach Monday, Wednesday and
Hriday morning, Debbie Vaughn, a
Ipphomore education major, drives
to the Bryan school to spend two
Tmrs with the kindergarteners.
Ihile the pupils learn how to count
and say the alphabet, Vaughn learns
fhow to teach, she says.
(Her work in the kindergarten
tss is part of a Texas A&M course,
bCI 227, Field Experience in El-
hentary Education. The course is
Open to non-majors,
lllob Wright, the course’s lecturer,
!avs EDCI 227 is unique because it
shows education students what tea-
ping in a public-school classroom is
like early in their college education.
■Each student gets 72 hours of el
ementary-classroom experience,
working with a teacher in the Bryan
or College Station school districts,
Blight says.
jAfost of them are given a pretty
exiensive exposure to teaching,” he
sa\<. “The largest percentage of the
Students have their dedication to tea-
Bng solidified.”
But some of the students com
plete the course and decide they do
not want to teach, Wright says.
“That’s what we want,” he says.
“That’s what it’s for.”
More than 2,000 students have
completed the course in the eight
years Wright has been teaching it, he
says, and upon completion they
knew whether or not they wanted to
teach.
“I’ve really learned a lot
about the good and bad of
the administration. I’ve
learned that teachers have
a real problem with disci
pline. ”
— Education major
Debbie Vaughn
In most colleges, he says, the first
time education majors get classroom
experience is during their last se
mester, when they student-teach.
But then is too late for them to
change their major, Wright says.
“You’ve got to meet the state stan
dards,” he says. “But you can do
more than that, and we have.”
Modern programming during the
creation of the A&M College of Edu
cation in 1968 and the cooperation
of the Bryan and College Station in
dependent school districts made
EDCI 227 possible, Wright says.
The schools help the education
students and the students help the
teachers, he says.
Vaughn says part of her time is
spent helping Nesmith with paper
work, but she also works with chil
dren individually. During the semes
ter she must teach the class two
lessons and create a project for the
students to work on.
The education majors are eval
uated by the teacher they work with,
Vaughn says. The course is graded
on a pass-fail basis.
“I’ve really learned a lot about the
good and bad of the administra
tion,” she says. “I’ve learned that tea
chers have a real problem with disci
pline.”
Vaughn says when she came to
A&M she never intended to teach
kindergarten. However, she loves
working with the children and now
has decided to teach kindergartners,
she says.
Wright tells his students teaching
elementary school is not for every
one.
“It really takes a deep caring,” he
says. “They have to really care for
the child’s welfare and the child has
to know that they do.”
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Senior Bash
Friday, May 1, 8 p.m.
Texas Hall of Fame, $5/couple
Featuring Texas Highriders
‘ J. ; ■. .’'ih.'X
j-T If, % v
Senior Banquet"
Saturday, May 2, 7 p.m.
College Station Hilton, $30/couple
Cocktail Hour, 6 p.m.
Guest Speaker Jack Rains, ’60,
Texas Secretary of State
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Ring Dance lS W
Saturday, May 2, 9 p.m.
MSC and Rudder Exhibit Hall, $35/couple
Featuring Michael, Michael and the Maxx
Ed Gerlach Orchestra
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Tickets for Senior Banquet must be purchased
by Noon Friday, May 1.
The Senior Weekend Package at $65/couple,
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AH tickets are presale.
Anybunny Home?
Sharmeen Esmail, 7, tries to feed a finicky rabbit at
the Brazos Valley Museum’s Baby Animal Day.
Photo by Tracy Staton
The museum sponsors the petting zoo each Easter
to entertain the children after they hunt eggs.
Shark attacks girl; beaches remain open
PORT ARANSAS (AP) — A girl whose arm was bit
ten off by a shark remained hospitalized Sunday, but lo
cal officials said they will not close beaches to the thou
sands of Easter weekend visitors.
April Dawn Voglino, 16, of Kingsland, underwent
surgery Saturday evening at Memorial Medical Center
in Corpus Christi. She was in the intensive care unit in
serious but stable condition Sunday, said nursing super
visor D. Brown.
The teen-ager was in chest-deep water near Mustang
Island when the shark attacked her Saturday. She was
swimming with her father, who pounded on the shark
and carried her ashore after the shark swam away. Vog-
lino’s arm was severed about six to eight inches above
the elbow in the attack.
Nueces County Commissioner J.P. Luby said the at
tack was probably an isolated case and would not order
the beaches closed.
Luby said Sunday he planned to fly over the area
with Coast Guard officials to make observations of any
sharks.
“We’ll take some action if we see a lot of sharks out
there,” Luby said. “We’ve had people bitten before, but
nothing as major as this.”
Planning summer in Fort Worth?
Plan on TCU, too.
Check on this chance to get ahead ... or make up for something you
missed. Consider taking a course at TCU this summer that can transfer
back to your home university next fall. We offer a three-week mini
term, two five-week terms, an eight-week evening term. And there's
still time for work, and summer fun! For your copy of the TCU
Summer Sessions Bulletin, contact the Office of Extended Education,
TCU Box 32927, Fort Worth, TX 76129. Or call us at (817) 921-7130.
We're here to help.
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