Four Yelm High School students, along with YHS teacher Hillary Hull, recently returned from the trip of a lifetime at Arizona State University where they competed in the Arizona State Educators Rising competition in Tempe.
Hull accompanied students Bailie Fowler, Kenadie Webster, Adelyne Hanson and Taliah Boyd to the land of the Sun Devils where they competed in various competitions such as in Children’s Literacy, where students wrote and illustrated a book for K-3 students, and Teacher Created Materials, where students created a material to someday use in their own classroom. Each of the four students are student teachers at elementary schools within Yelm Community Schools and aspire to someday teach at the elementary level.
“When they weren’t competing they were given a huge project to complete — they had to design their ideal school for 100 third graders,” Hull told the Nisqually Valley News. “They were given student data, a budget of $400,000, resumes, a website to purchase furniture and curriculum. They had about 48 hours to come up with all of the decisions that would be made in creating the ideal third grade classroom.
“They hired teachers, bought furniture for the classrooms, set the learning schedule, planned rotations for student groups based on data, and designed a lesson plan for the third graders,” she added. “On the second day, they had to present to a panel of judges, and the students did an excellent job and placed second in the whole competition.”
Fowler, a senior, said she hopes to teach second or third grade after she graduates from high school and college. She currently student teaches at Southworth Elementary, where she works with second graders in small groups. She believes her time in Arizona not only helped better prepare her for becoming a teacher someday, but also reaffirmed her passion for her choice in careers.
“We got a lot of experience with people in Arizona, because the only other people there were from Arizona so it was all about their standards,” Fowler said. “They have a lot of different (standards). Like, we had to build a schedule and they had a lot of different things about how to build the schedule, the subjects that need to be taught in the classes, and how long they need to be taught.”
In addition to preparing her for a career in teaching, Fowler believes her trip to Tempe helped her improve on public speaking, as she was involved in numerous presentations and constantly working in groups.
She views the trip as being helpful in taking a big step toward becoming an educator.
“We got deeper into building a lesson plan, and we built a classroom. We talked to teachers and students who also want to become teachers. Those are experiences that I will remember when I become a teacher learning what works,” Fowler said. “Since we made those classrooms and collaborated with people, we know a little more about how to work with each other. I think we’ll be able to work with our classmates better because of it.”
Webster, a senior at YHS, currently student teaches at Southworth Elementary as she works with small groups. She’s hopeful to someday teach second graders, stating she believes they’re fun to work with and that they’re at an age where they love learning.
“I thought the trip was really helpful. It helped us divide up work so we didn’t take on too much for ourselves. We worked together, got other people’s ideas and used them,” Webster said. “It was cool learning about their standards. They had these work force standards that everyone had to meet so they’ll have skills later in life. It was a little tough to learn about, but once we got it, it was pretty easy to implement.”
