CEDAR FALLS - Josh Pagel isn't used to being called "Mister."

He is still getting comfortable with a group of second- and third-graders looking to him for direction.

But each day he spent in front of the classroom this fall he grew more confident in his abilities to lead them. He says he still isn't certain teaching is the career path he is meant to take, but right now he can't think of any other place he would rather be.

"If I saw myself in five years, this is what I would be doing," he said. "But I think I just need to get enough experience to build my confidence."

Pagel said his excitement for the profession has grown exponentially in the last semester thanks to the University of Northern Iowa's Professional Development School program. The goal of the intensive program is to enrich the classroom field experience for pre-service teachers and the working educators who mentor them.

How it works

The Professional Development School program was piloted during the 2007-08 school year in four Waterloo and Cedar Falls schools - Cedar Falls High, Hansen Elementary, Edison Elementary and Central Middle School. This year, the program expanded to seven additional schools - Peet Junior High, Orchard Hill Elementary, and Cedar Heights Elementary in Cedar Falls and East High School, Logan Middle School, Poyner Elementary and Lowell Elementary in Waterloo.

Students participating in the PDS have increased faculty supervision and longer field placement. In addition to the one-on-one contact with their classroom teacher, the pre-service students will also have access to site coordinators and supervisors. Site coordinators are teachers in the school who are paid a stipend for their involvement. They help match students and teachers, host orientations for incoming field experience students and serve as another contact point for the students and university.

Supervisors - many are retired teachers - meet with each field experience student three to four times a semester and are an additional contact point for students, classroom teachers and university staff.

Becky Hawbaker, the field experience coordinator and a Price Lab teacher, said having a supervisor sit in on a class with a pre-service teacher helps the UNI students "notice things about the classroom we want them to notice."

"When a student is green they see things through a different lens. We want them to see the strategies and actions they are learning about," she said. "The classroom teachers are usually teaching and can't explain their processes, so having that supervisor in the classroom allows that conversation to occur."

John Henning, the project director and an associate professor, said that the extra supervision has been key to the program, but added it is still the teachers who influence students most.

"They are key in this," Henning said. "When the students are talking about the classroom teacher, they are the ones who helped them most. It is their extra effort to mentor these young students and help usher in the next generation of teachers."

Experiences at each level

Pre-service teachers are divided into four categories: levels 1, 2 and 3 and student teachers. The professional development school deals solely with students prior to their student teaching experience.

Each semester the university places about 400 Level 1 students in schools around the area. In the first year, 104 of those students were placed through the PDS. During the 2008 fall semester that number increased to 149. Level 1 students spend 30 hours in the classroom. Pagel, a sophomore, said his experience began with observations and doing helpful tasks around the classroom, like organizing books into genres for easier cataloguing.

As Pagel grew more comfortable in the classroom he joined in on activities and after only a month he was planning and executing mini lessons.

"This has excited me in a lot of ways to become a teacher, but is has also made me more nervous about all the work that goes into it," he said.

Level 2 students are usually more familiar with the fundamentals of teaching, such as planning, instructional strategies, assessment and reflection. They spend about 25 hours in the classroom over four weeks. By the end of their placement, they should have taught at least one or two full lessons, Henning said. In 2007-08, about 50 Level 2 students were placed through the PDS; another 25 were placed this semester. Henning said many Level 2 students are still placed at the laboratory school.

Travis Elliott, a fifth-year Edison Elementary teacher and site coordinator, remembers his Level 2 experience at Price Lab. The field experience was completed with several other students who all had to share face time with the classroom teacher.

"When I was doing this I felt I only had a piece of the teacher. You only had their ear for a few minutes," he said. "Hopefully, with this experience, the (UNI) students feel they have all of you."

Level 3 experiences can vary greatly depending on a student's emphasis and content area. Students could even have a series of field experiences as they move through a methods course, Henning said.

Teachers benefit, too

Henning understands the pressures placed on classroom teachers, which is why he wanted to offer something in return for their participation with the PDS.

In addition to a university library card and the availability of athletic and entertainment tickets, classroom teachers also have the opportunity to enroll in continuing education courses for a nominal cost. The three courses focus specifically on mentoring pre-service teachers. During the final course the experienced mentors lead lessons for current teachers who are just starting the continuing education classes.

Though Elliott appreciates the perks, his true interest in the program is two-fold. First, he won't turn down an opportunity to get more face-to-face time with his students.

"Any extra help I can get in the classroom is appreciated," he said. "This isn't extra work for me. The benefits far outweigh the work."

The leadership role is also helping Elliott prepare his resume for an eventual move into education administration, he said. He is working toward a master's degree in leadership, which he said goes hand in hand with the PDS project.

Hawbaker said teacher surveys from the first year show that 90 percent of the educators agreed or strongly agreed that their students benefitted from having field experience students in the class and 80 percent said they benefitted from the experience, too.

"We want our student to be contributing in a positive way to the achievement in the schools and we want the students to benefit from the extra eyes and ears in the room," Hawbaker said.

She added that having students in her classroom has forced her to reflect on her teaching practices.

"It forces you to articulate again, that, yes, I do this intentionally and for this reason. If also has forced me to sometimes admit that I have strayed from what I believe is my philosophy," she said. "I think I learned as much from the students as I taught them."

Lasting results

Henning said one of the most critical problems in education is teacher retention. The National Center for Education Statistics states that the average turnover for all teachers is 17 percent nationwide. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future paints an even bleaker picture, estimating that one-third of all new teachers leave after three years and 46 percent are gone in five.

Henning hopes that giving pre-service students more access to classrooms early on and offering them the opportunity to build personal and professional relationships with the teachers already in the schools will help keep that number in check as the next generation of teachers enters the field.

"If they are more familiar with the environment, they are more likely to stay," he said.

Hawbaker said they are also starting to see the lessons taught in the mentoring classes being shared with teachers who haven't enrolled in the course.

"As the project goes on, it starts to feel funny to talk about PDS and non-PDS schools," she said. "All Cedar Falls and Waterloo schools continue to host our students. As we work directly with more and more schools we can see that message emanating through the schools we are not officially working with."

Contact Emily Christensen

at (319) 291-1570 or

emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.