Organized by students, a recent event at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville welcomed a panel of local teachers to share experiences and offer advice to future educators. The event was sponsored by Aspiring Educators at UW-Platteville – a student organization that aims to provide a safe and welcoming place for future educators to collaborate with other future educators.
“The main goal I had for running this panel was to give students the opportunity to speak with teachers in the field and offer them a chance to hear about real-world experiences that teachers are having in the classroom and insight into what a day as a teacher looks like,” said Carly Jacquart, a junior elementary education major from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and vice president of Aspiring Educators. According to Jacquart, 80 members of the organization attended the panel.
The 14 panelists ranged from 4K to high school teachers from Platteville, Lancaster and Dodgeville school districts. They discussed a wide range of topics, including student teaching advice, tips on job applications and resumes, behavior management tactics, parent involvement, maintaining a healthy work and home life balance and more.
“I personally took away a lot of useful information,” said Jacquart. “It was really nice to hear from teachers and sort of put myself in their shoes. All of our members were beyond grateful for the panel. One thing a lot of our members brought up, was the fact that you learn about a lot of different things from the professors in class, but having the chance to hear from real teachers and getting to hear their point of view, tops anything you can hear in your everyday education class.”
For more information about the UW-Platteville School of Education, visit www.uwplatt.edu/education.