Currently there are two student teachers in the building, Vallie Hinkle and John Cumberland, who are hoping to gain as much experience as possible.

In different classrooms in the school, prospective teachers are observing and learning the ways of conducting a class. Things they can’t learn from their college classes are answered by observing a class to get a stronger grip of what teaching is from those with more experience.

One York College student teacher, Vallie Hinkle, who is working in math teacher Chris Newland’s class, has started coming to Susquehannock about a week and a half ago and will be staying until May.

“I’ll start [teaching Newland’s classes] this week for one of his classes,” said Hinkle. “And then every week I’ll take on another class until I have every class.”

Having only been here for a week, Hinkle is not overwhelmed with responsibilities yet.

“I’m not too concerned yet because I’m just worried about one class at a time,” said Hinkle. “But it’s kind of scary knowing that you’re going to have everything all at once, and we have some hard classes to do. So we’ll see how that goes.”

While her experience under Newland is not her first student teaching position, she felt that it would be beneficial to observe some other teachers at the high school. By viewing other classes, she saw the different techniques teachers use in their classrooms.

“…I also observed Mrs. Eisenhart, Mr. Heikes, and then the French teacher, Ms. South,” said Hinkle. “So I got to see a little bit of different strategies that they do and what [Mr. Newland] does and kind of compare to see what’s best…”

Overall, Hinkle has a couple of things she wants to get out of this experience.

“[I hope to learn] basically how to manage a class and be an actual teacher…we don’t get that in college,” said Hinkle.

So far, Newland has been impressed with Hinkle and has had great impressions of her since she first arrived at the school.

“It’s been an interesting experience,” said Newland. “I’ve gotten to know her a little bit better, so we’ve been able to laugh about a lot of things…it’s a different experience to have someone else’s opinion as well.”

With many months to come, Hinkle has a lot to learn. Newland thinks that calculus may be a bit of a challenge for her to teach the subject.

“I know calculus will be a a little bit of a challenge,” said Newland. “…not many people get to teach calculus, so that will be one of the ones we want to make sure she’s well prepared for.”

Furthermore, freshman Holly Bull doesn’t have much opinion on the student teacher in her math class, which may be due to the little time Hinkle has been here.

“[Hinkle] sits in the back and kind of watches…,” said Bull. “Towards the end of while she’s there, she’ll actually start teaching so she can get experience…”

Hopefully student teachers will acquire positive teaching techniques here before they run their own classroom.