Teacher Interview: Amanda Lowe
Amanda Lowe is one of my dearest friends that attends Oakland University and is also in the Elementary Education program. She is in her third year here at OU and is getting her endorsements in language arts and in early childhood education. Amanda has many passions like reading and playing the guitar but she is most passionate when it comes to the field of education, "I have always wanted to be a teacher. I love working with children and seeing them grow and develop!"
At Oakland University each Elementary Education student takes four classes with attached field placements before student teaching to give them experience with different communities and cultures. Amanda told me that she is currently placed at Morse Elementary in Troy in a 2nd grade classroom. "So far I have loved all my field experiences. I have gotten lucky and all of my teachers have been great! They all had different styles, but were all great teachers and it was cool to see the differences." As an education student myself, I can also attest to appreciating the field experiences Oakland University has set up for education students. Field experiences are a wonderful way to ease education majors into becoming THE teacher. When a university student is in a field placement, the teacher of the classroom does most of their normal routines but a field student can observe, interject, or even give suggestions to their mentor teacher on ideas they think will work in the classroom. Field students also begin to gain knowledge on how to manage a classroom, what activities keep children interested in a lesson, and start to see the behind the scenes work that goes into becoming a teacher.
Another great thing that comes out of field experiences is getting to interact with children. I asked Amanda if there were any children that stuck out to her that she's remembered and asked her to share: "In my Winter 2017 kindergarten field placement at Kenwood Elementary, there was a student who I would frequently work with on reading. Reading and children's literacy is a passion of mine so I enjoyed getting to work with this student. He moved from barely knowing how to read to getting on grade level and reading books with one sentence per page instead of just a few words." Every student that we come into contact with is important, but there are always a few that stick out to us, who helped us grow as teachers when we thought we were teaching them. In the field of education there's a lot of give and take, push and pull, especially as a brand new teacher. When we are teaching students, they are also teaching us-how to better our lessons, what behavior management techniques work best, and learning to celebrate little things.
Becoming a teacher is hard! Most of the time you don't know what you're doing and you feel like everyone else has it all together-that all education majors get 4.0s in every class and that no one makes mistakes, but that's not true. Amanda told me, "It's easy to get overwhelmed with everything you have to do both in and out of classes. Write it all down, keep a binder or a folder, and ask questions whenever you have them. Start keeping your best work in a portfolio now so you will have it when you begin to interview for jobs!"
I am bias, but I know Amanda is going to be a great elementary school teacher. She says she's most interested in teaching preschool to second grade and with her organization skills and kind heart I know that she will do great with that age. Because I know literacy is one of her passions and because I knew it would pain her to choose, to end her interview I asked Amanda to share some of her favorite read-aloud books; Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena, That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems, and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak were just some of the books she shared.
At Oakland University each Elementary Education student takes four classes with attached field placements before student teaching to give them experience with different communities and cultures. Amanda told me that she is currently placed at Morse Elementary in Troy in a 2nd grade classroom. "So far I have loved all my field experiences. I have gotten lucky and all of my teachers have been great! They all had different styles, but were all great teachers and it was cool to see the differences." As an education student myself, I can also attest to appreciating the field experiences Oakland University has set up for education students. Field experiences are a wonderful way to ease education majors into becoming THE teacher. When a university student is in a field placement, the teacher of the classroom does most of their normal routines but a field student can observe, interject, or even give suggestions to their mentor teacher on ideas they think will work in the classroom. Field students also begin to gain knowledge on how to manage a classroom, what activities keep children interested in a lesson, and start to see the behind the scenes work that goes into becoming a teacher.
Another great thing that comes out of field experiences is getting to interact with children. I asked Amanda if there were any children that stuck out to her that she's remembered and asked her to share: "In my Winter 2017 kindergarten field placement at Kenwood Elementary, there was a student who I would frequently work with on reading. Reading and children's literacy is a passion of mine so I enjoyed getting to work with this student. He moved from barely knowing how to read to getting on grade level and reading books with one sentence per page instead of just a few words." Every student that we come into contact with is important, but there are always a few that stick out to us, who helped us grow as teachers when we thought we were teaching them. In the field of education there's a lot of give and take, push and pull, especially as a brand new teacher. When we are teaching students, they are also teaching us-how to better our lessons, what behavior management techniques work best, and learning to celebrate little things.
Becoming a teacher is hard! Most of the time you don't know what you're doing and you feel like everyone else has it all together-that all education majors get 4.0s in every class and that no one makes mistakes, but that's not true. Amanda told me, "It's easy to get overwhelmed with everything you have to do both in and out of classes. Write it all down, keep a binder or a folder, and ask questions whenever you have them. Start keeping your best work in a portfolio now so you will have it when you begin to interview for jobs!"
I am bias, but I know Amanda is going to be a great elementary school teacher. She says she's most interested in teaching preschool to second grade and with her organization skills and kind heart I know that she will do great with that age. Because I know literacy is one of her passions and because I knew it would pain her to choose, to end her interview I asked Amanda to share some of her favorite read-aloud books; Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena, That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems, and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak were just some of the books she shared.
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