Learning outside the classroom
Senior Brittany Mayfield helps a sixth grade student during her Cadet Teaching class. Mayfield is Cadet Teaching with Mr. Ken Tucker, her teacher in the fifth grade.
November 7, 2014
Work experience: List any job that gave you useful experience or skills.
When filling in Naviance.com‘s résumé builder, though, “student” is not a job, and “wrote an essay on Things Fall Apart” is not a useful experience. Classroom education, while advancing academic development, does not replace experience. Yet, through Cadet Teaching, JEL and Career Exploration Internship classes, senior students have the opportunity go outside the high school classroom to gain real world experience.
Brittany Mayfield
Cadet Teaching
The credited Cadet Teaching program lets students who want to teach learn how to directly from a teacher. For a block a day, cadet teachers work with their chosen Noblesville instructor, gaining experience in a live classroom environment. Senior Brittany Mayfield, who’s wanted to teach with her old teacher for seven years, is cadet teaching for current 6th grade teacher Ken Tucker.
“I get to be involved with real kids, discuss real lessons, and see the classroom from the perspective of the the adult and educator side, rather than student,” Mayfield said. “I have seen life from a desk for over 12 years, but now I am ready to reverse the roles.”
In addition to observing, Mayfield helps Tucker with the day’s lesson, providing technical support, leading small discussions, and checking assignments. With the 6th graders, she’s a “celebrity” of sorts, and Mayfield treasures her growing relationship with them.
“I love getting to know the students little by little,” Mayfield said. “They tell me stories of the weekend, or what is bothering them, and it reminds me of myself, and how I always looked up to student teachers or teenagers.”
At this point in time, Mayfield still does not know what she wants to specifically teach, but she believes the cadet teaching experience is beneficial for those interested in teaching, counseling and social work alike.
“Even if you are just toying with the idea of an education career, I highly recommend this course, because hands on experience and being around real children–not just lessons and statistics in books, but living, breathing, question-asking, hallway-running kids–is what will tell you if this is where you want to be the rest of your life,” Mayfield said.
Michael Firks
JEL Career Classes
Other students who know what they want to do can take one of the J. Everett Light courses over at the JEL Career Center on the North Central High School campus. These contracted, application-only classes teach specific skills and how to apply them on the job. Senior Michael Firks spends three hours a day at JEL, learning to become an Emergency Medical Technician.
“I chose to take the EMT class because of my interest in public safety, and being able to help other people in need when they are in a critical situation,” Firks said. “At JEL, they give me the knowledge and the tests to get my certification so I can work that job out in the real world and not have to pay anything for the class.”
Each day, Firks reads and takes notes from the assigned chapter, but afterwords he and his peers are taught a skill that they practice for the rest of the day. In his class, he has already learned how to take blood pressure, splint, backboard, use cots, find a pulse and check heart rates.
“The most enjoyable part for me is the hands-on training,” Firks said. “I was never a sit down, take notes and figure out how to do it on your own kind of person. I like being able to actually go hands-on in class and practice the skills I’ve learned.”
Firks is looking forward to second semester, when he’ll have a chance to do his clinicals. Then, students in his JEL class will be placed on an ambulance or in an ER, actually working on patients with the skills learned.
From Emergency Medical Services to Law Enforcement, the JEL program offers a number of courses that, in Firks’ words, are for “anyone interested in public safety, people who’d give their all to save lives every single day they worked.”
The JEL program offers 22 different courses, all of which are credited and many culminate with college credit, a license or certification in the area, to jump-start students with practical experience in specific careers, from Culinary Arts to Web Design to Veterinary Assisting.
Marissa Kay
Career Exploration Internship
In the 14-15 school year, 135 seniors signed up for the Career Exploration Internship class, a credited two-block course, designed to provide work experience in an area of student interest. Unlike Cadet Teaching and JEL which support certain career paths, the internship program encourages students to find a business or office that suits potential interests, working at Community North Hospital or Nickel Plate Arts and anything in between.
Out of the 45 business partners of the program, senior Marissa Kay interns with Kit Magazine, a nonprofit publication in downtown Noblesville, because of her interest in journalism advertising. There, she supplements her experience as Editor-in-Chief of the Shadow Yearbook with work experience creating graphics for Kit’s social media and calling businesses to get them to advertise in the magazine.
Kay believes the best part of her internship is “being able to converse with people about where they started and how they got to the position they are in today.” Aside from the opportunity to learn from experience, Kay’s internship gives her the chance to learn from others’ experiences, from experts who have gone into her desired field like Kit Magazine Editor and founder Kelly McVey.
“[Mcvey] has given me my first glimpse into what I hope to be doing 10 years from now,” Kay said. “Although I am not going into the magazine field, necessarily, the experience at Kit has given me the opportunity to decide what I truly want to do with my life.”
While her original aims in contacting Mcvey had been to learn magazine photojournalism, Kay values the opportunity to see what she’d actually like to do. The experience has shown her what careers she’s truly interested in.
“I would recommend this program to anyone and everyone,” Kay said. “It is truly an amazing program that can help students kind of figure out who they are and where their main interests lie.”
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