Louise Whitelaw makes sure that undergraduate Education majors at Neumann don’t wait until senior year to get a taste of real classroom experience.
As the Field Experience Coordinator for Ed majors, Whitelaw arranges regular class visits for her prospective teachers beginning in their first semester at Neumann. The multi-hour visits continue until the student teaching experience in senior year.
“We begin with three or four visits per semester as freshmen, usually with the Penn Delco School District, and build up the frequency to 10 per semester during junior and senior years,” Whitelaw explains.
The number of Neumann alumni who work locally as professional educators makes the process easier. “They’re receptive to helping our students and often work with them for years,” says Whitelaw.
Bridget Deal, for instance, has been placing Neumann undergraduates in the Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) system since 2009, even before Whitelaw arrived in 2012. Deal, a 2001 Neumann graduate, is principal of West B, one of six CCCS K-5 schools.
“In the early years, we took 20 or more Neumann students per year,” Deal recalls. “I still place 12-15 students every year. It’s a great experience for our teachers and the Neumann students, a great partnership.”
She sees the early classroom experience as especially beneficial for the undergrads.
“It lets them try out the profession to see if they like it. It also lets them see a range of teaching styles and might help them gravitate to a certain grade level before they embrace teaching as a career.”
Most of all, real-world situations make future teachers flexible and adaptable when things don’t go according to the daily lesson plan.
“Experience is the best teacher,” says Deal.
Ryan Lopez agrees. A 2022 Neumann graduate who now teaches mathematics at Sun Valley High School, he believes that there’s a huge benefit for undergraduates in observing teachers and getting started early.
“It lets the students discover who they want to be and who they don’t want to be in the classroom,” Lopez explains. “How are you going to teach a class after lunch period, when they’re all riled up and ready to go? How do you find the fine line between being the adult in the room and hearing them out? How do you show empathy but still hold students accountable?”
Whitelaw is able to tailor the experience to student preferences and urges them to experience different types of settings: public, private, charter, and Catholic schools.
She believes that the experience of interacting with a professional in the field, learning pragmatic tips (keeping grade book, wearing proper attire, handling fire drills), and networking with administrators provides Neumann Education graduates with an advantage when they enter the workforce.