There are different routes to becoming a teacher. One of the more common is student teaching which offers aspiring teachers the opportunity to learn first hand what it is like to be a real teacher. The program allows  student teachers to experience the day-to-day tasks that a typical teacher faces. Southern Methodist University graduate Victoria Penrose is the latest student teacher on campus as she will be helping out the history department this semester.

“Once you are at the end of your education minor at SMU they make you take the general education test and then the test in your subject area and once you have passed those you are cleared to become a student teacher,” Penrose said. “I actually did it after graduation and I worked with someone in the education department and she helped me get set up with Lovejoy and that’s why I’m with Coach Roberts because she is his mom.”

Unlike most SMU students, Penrose was a special exception to the normal routine of a student teacher.

“Normally at SMU they want us to be in Dallas ISD because it’s around that area,” Penrose said. “Nancy Roberts was the one in charge of student teaching and she knew her son was looking for a student teacher and I was the only social studies student teacher that year and the only secondary so they requested that I go to Lovejoy instead of a Dallas ISD school.”

While having a student teacher will help relieve some of the work load, Penrose won’t necessarily make government teacher Jeff Roberts’ job easier.

“Having a student teacher will definitely be a benefit to us because we will have another set of eyes and there will be another individual who is wanting the students to learn,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t make my job easier in my opinion because you want that student teacher or that co-teacher to also develop as a teacher so I will have to be paying attention and help her progress as a teacher.”

Penrose will have the opportunity to be the acting teacher towards the end of the semester.

“She will be a co-teacher throughout the first month or so and then toward the end of the semester she will completely be teaching the class and she will be doing everything that a teacher would be tasked with doing,” Roberts said.

Working in a real classroom will give Penrose the opportunity to learn valuable lessons that couldn’t be taught in a college lecture.

“I plan to learn the daily management of teaching,” Penrose said. “I’ve taught lessons before but it’s just one lesson so you don’t get to see the whole day through and the type of prep that it takes to really be a teacher. I also want to learn to be comfortable in front of a classroom because I’m not really good at that yet.”

Having a student teacher will benefit the students just as much as it will benefit Penrose.

“I think it’s a great opportunity not only for her but for our government class because she gets to learn and and we also get a second teacher,” senior Audrey Swanson said. “I think having a student teacher will benefit us the most when coach Roberts is gone for softball which will happen a lot in the spring and we won’t fall behind because Ms. Penrose will be there to take over. We won’t have to do busy work with a sub because we will have Ms. Penrose ready and able to take over.”