In the Fall 2020 semester, more than 30 Mount Saint Mary College student teachers took the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic head-on.
While one might expect people to opt out of student teaching due to the pandemic, the opposite is true at the Mount. This semester saw an increase of more than 10 student teachers at the Mount, and more than 40 Mount teaching candidates are expected to student teach during the Spring 2021 semester. About 50 more have applied to student teach during the Fall 2021 semester.
Priya Mendez, coordinator of Student Teacher Field Placement at the Mount, is not surprised that Mount teaching candidates are forging ahead during the pandemic.
“Our student teaching candidates have all done an amazing job during these unprecedented times,” she explained. “Educators are resilient, and that message has resonated with our teacher candidates. Mount student teachers embody the spirit of being leaders and champions for their students.”
With the ups and downs of infection rates in New York State over the last four months, COVID-19 has created educational hardships. But it also provided an opportunity for some very unique on-the-job training. In the last two semesters, Mount student teachers have taught in elementary, middle, and high schools both in-person and virtually, adapting to each situation with skill.
For example, student teaching during the Spring 2020 semester left some lasting impressions on Sarah Quade of Middletown, N.Y., a recent graduate of Mount Saint Mary College. Quade, who took the Mount’s five-year Education track for a bachelor’s and master’s degree, did her student teaching at the Minisink Valley School District. She said her coronavirus-era teaching experience will influence her education style for the remainder of her career. Now, when planning her teaching strategies for the future, Quade will make sure that her lessons can be moved to an online format at a moment’s notice.
This semester, Camryn Christensen of Wallingford, Conn., a Mount Mathematics major, is a student teacher at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. As in years previous, Bishop Dunn, located on the Mount campus, is hosting several Mount student teachers. Despite the pandemic, Bishop Dunn saw an increase in enrollment this year.
Teaching during a pandemic is an experience she values, Christensen noted.
“It is so relieving to be able to see the students in the classroom every day and have some sort of normalcy through these crazy times,” she explained. “If anything, the students have taught me more than I have even been able to bring to the classroom thus far and I truly am so proud of how they are able to adjust to this new teaching environment.”
Experiences like Christensen’s are not surprising to Mendez. The Office of Student Teaching had challenges to overcome during these strange times, “but with the kindness of our community, our personal contacts in school districts, and a group of dedicated retired school personnel as our college liaisons, we power on,” she said. “We help our candidates to meet each challenge with an open mind and an open heart. They teach, with or without COVID-19.”
Over the last half century, Mount Saint Mary College has been a dedicated and respected provider of teacher education in the Hudson Valley. In the last decade, two of the New York State Teachers of the year have been from the Mount.