Getting to Know Our Students: Meet Colleen Coveney

This year, we are spending time getting to know our students! You can get to know more of our students and our faculty/ staff on previous posts. Read on to meet Colleen, one of our current sophomores!

I was born in Bartlett, Illinois but spent the majority of my childhood in Carmel, Indiana. As a sophomore at Marquette, I have been in Milwaukee for about a year and a half, but it already feels like home. I grew up with my two loving parents, two brothers, and a couple of pets. Evan is 18 and will be going to an undetermined college next year, Liam is 14 and just started his Freshman year of high school. Additionally, I have a Golden Retriever named Franklin and a Siamese named Lulu. I am studying Secondary Education and Political Science here at Marquette.

My favorite educational experience was in a high school education class where my classmates and I ran a preschool. We were paired off in twos and assigned a week in which we were to choose a theme, plan a variety of lessons, and monitor the execution of the concept by the other high school students, who were teaching the lessons. Although my interest is not in early-childhood education, the opportunity to construct an entire week of lessons and activities was both challenging and extremely rewarding. To this day, my preschool teaching guides my own knowledge of lesson planning and collaborative educating. I am excited to continue to develop my experience as an educator and get a more tangible idea of high school teaching this year.

The Marquette campus and College of Education hold a very special place in my heart as a secondary home. From the moment I stepped onto campus, I fell in love with the gorgeous buildings, flourishing Milwaukee area, and amazing Marquette people. The glow of a campus sunset and the beauty of fall leaves in the Central Mall never cease to inspire me. However, the College of Education had an equally significant part to play in my own college decision. The opportunity to pursue multiple majors was a unique and important benefit of Marquette. In addition, the program includes placements in a classroom every semester which is imperative during the discernment and decision processes.

While my education is incredibly important to me, I also pursue many other activities on Marquette’s campus. During the week I work at the College of Nursing and play on my sand volleyball team. On the weekends, my friends and I enjoy Marquette Basketball games, visiting the lake, or exploring Milwaukee. The people and students that I get to meet and work with daily are what inspire me to continue to learn and develop as an educator.

Getting to Know Our Students: Meet Ann Govig

This year, we are spending time getting to know our students! You can get to know more of our students and our faculty/ staff on previous posts. Read on to meet Ann, one of our current students in our NSF Noyce Program!

My name is Ann and I am a current student in the NSF Noyce Program at Marquette. I grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota in a family of five with two older brothers. My family is very outdoorsy! Growing up we spent every free weekend we had at Lake Tschidia. We love to fish and hunt (I more so like to eat the rewards) but enjoy spending the quality time with all of them! 

The NSF Noyce Program is helping shape me as an educator in multiple ways. The program has immersed me in different education environments that will prepare me to teach students from all backgrounds. Also, the faculty and staff involved are also truly invested in each student, making the overwhelming process of becoming a teacher much more manageable.

My Grandmother Ruth is my inspiration to be an educator. She taught History and English for many years and although I never saw her in action, I believe she was a tremendous teacher.

With Gratitude and Thanksgiving

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” St. Ambrose

Week 2: The Big Orange Box

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

I have officially been student teach​ing in New Zealand for two weeks now. I have loved my time so far and have learned so much from my cooperating teacher, class and school. I have finally started to get into the groove of things and am getting a hang of the schedule.

I mentioned briefly in my last post about how students at Swanson have a lot more play time than students in the US do. So here is the average day teaching in my Year 1/ Year 2 class at Swanson school:

Swanson Daily Schedule
9:00 – Learning Block 1 (2 hrs)
11:00 – 1st Break (40 min)
11:40 – Learning Block 2 (1.5 hrs)
1:10 – 2nd Break (40 min)
1:50- Learning Block 3 (1 hr)
2:55 – Dismissal

This totals to about 6 hours at school, 4.5 hours of learning blocks, and 1.5 hours of break/lunch time. In addition o the breaks, we frequently take breaks during learning blocks to take a lap or two jogging around the large bike path or playing a game. We also have fitness once a week where we do track and field activities for 40 minutes. My school I was just at in Wisconsin had 7 total hours at school and only a 20 minute recess and 20 minute lunch. Our brain breaks would be quick and limited because we were always inside. Another difference between Swanson and my school and most schools in the States is that when a students finishes a learning task at Swanson, they are usually free to play until it is time to move on to the next thing. Frequently, in the states when a students finishes a task, they are either directed to another task.

One of my biggest takeaways so far is that it is okay for students to just play sometimes. If they are getting their work done then they deserve some time to just play and be a child. A lot of learning and creativity happens through play, too.

I have learned over my time here that Swanson is a unique school in New Zealand. Not many schools have this much play time or free play (no rules) at breaks. If you have not checked out the tab of my blog about Swanson school, I highly recommend checking it out and watching the Free Play videos. Swanson has a unique policy of allowing kids to do whatever they please at breaks. Teachers are not allowed to say no and do not step in. I had not seen anything too crazy while on duty during breaks until this Friday when the big orange box arrived. This box was added to the field as storage for bikes, however, adventurous Swanson kids saw it as a great big climbing wall. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a herd of children climbing the box and standing on top. I even saw a kindergarten boy make it to the top of this box which was probably 12 plus feet off the ground. Although this was terrifying, it was also amazing to see the teamwork happening on this box. Older kids were helping younger kids make it to the top. I saw two 12-year-olds hoist up a 6-year-old boy while another 12-year-old grabbed him at the top and pulled him up. I also saw lines forming and kids patiently waiting for their turn to use the ladder they had dragged over from the hut building station in the trees. Anyways the big orange box was a wild experience to watch, but I can see a lot of benefits from letting children explore and learn from their own mistakes instead of an adult telling them no.

This week was a crazy week, but I loved every second of it!

On Friday I had a picnic with another American student teacher and her host family at Bethells beach. Never a bad day with food and a beach. On Saturday we ventured off to Waiheke Island and explored some beautiful vineyards. The views were incredible.

New Zealand has been good to me, and I can’t wait to explore it even more!

Getting to Know Our Students: Meet Amalia Lisser

This fall, we are continuing our series getting to know our students! You can get to know more of our students and our faculty/ staff on previous posts. Read on to meet Amalia Lisser, one of our undergraduate students at Marquette!

My name is Amalia Lisser and I am a current freshman in the College of Education studying Education and English. I grew up in Raymond, Wisconsin. I have only lived in Milwaukee for these past few weeks, but I have enjoyed every second of it! I come from a very close-knit family. We love travelling different places together (especially Disney World) and making memories we will always remember.

My favorite educational experience was when I was in an accelerated junior English class. We read the Great Gatsby as a class for one of our assigned readings. When we completed the book, my teacher threw a Gatsby themed party filled with fun facts about the book. It was a fun experience and that is something I will never forget! This upcoming school year, I am excited to have the ability to share my knowledge with others, as well as helping anyone through difficult times so they do not have to face anything alone.

I picked Marquette’s College of Education for many reasons. My mom is an alumni of Marquette, so I have always been very familiar with the school. When I toured Marquette, the College of Ed really drew me in because I have always wanted to go into Education. This seemed like the perfect fit for me. When I am not in the classroom, I like to sing, play instruments, and read! Advice for anyone who wants to try these things, take every opportunity you can and if it doesn’t work out, keep trying! My mother is my inspiration. She was a history teacher for 10th graders in Wisconsin. She loved her job and helped so many students. I hope to be like her one day!

Getting to Know Our Students: Meet Lindsey Craig

We are continuing getting to know our students this fall! You can get to know more of our students and our faculty/ staff on our blog series. Read on to meet Lindsey Craig, an undergraduate student in the College!

My name is Lindsey Craig, and I am a sophomore in the College of Education majoring in Secondary Education and English. I am from Mt. Prospect, IL. I lived in Milwaukee throughout my freshman year, and I am very excited to be back. My mom, dad, and younger brother (who is a freshman in high school) are in Illinois. Both of my parents were english majors, and my mom went to University of Wisconsin – Madison.

My favorite education experience was teaching my first lesson on my own last year to a 4^th grade class during language arts about creative word choice. My cooperating teacher as well as the teacher that ran the class were proud of my lesson and all of the work I did. All of the students were very interested and a variety of them were eager to participate which made me very happy! This year, I am so excited to take classes that interest me and will be beneficial in my future career as a teacher. I hope to form relationships with my professors, similar to how I was able to in high school with my teachers. Overall I am excited to get to know like-minded peers and create friendships with people, especially in the College of Education.

What drew me to Marquette was their strong mission to perform service throughout the community. I also wanted to double major and the College of Education makes that possible to do. I love the city of Milwaukee, plus it is a great distance away from home! Outside the classroom, I like to bake, read,and spend time with my friends and family. I especially like spending time with my dog — cuddles and long walks are the best! I advise anyone who wants to read or bake to start now! There are so many books out there and you can certainly find one that interests you. As for baking, I’ve learned it is almost certain that it actually takes less time than it says on the box. Growing up, one activity I have always loved was babysitting. You can have so much fun with the kids you are watching to the point where it does not even feel like a job. I love acting child-like and becoming close with the families. My inspiration for my future work is my English teacher from my sophomore year of high school. She always took the time to make the students feel comfortable, leave class with a smile on their face, and just being there for her students outside of class.

Week 1 – Barefoot Kiwis

Laine Dolan, an elementary education and communications studies student in the College of Education is spending part of her student teaching semester abroad. She is teaching at Swanson School in Auckland, New Zealand, and is blogging about her experience. This post originally appeared on Laine’s own blog. 

Hello Everyone and Welcome to my First Blog Post!

​I have made it to New Zealand and have lived one full week with the Kiwis. After three flights and about 32 hours of travel, I was glad to get to my host family’s house Swanson, Auckland, on Saturday October 26. We spent the long NZ Labor Day weekend exploring the near by area with our hosts. We saw great views from the Arataki Visitor Centre and the Pukematekeo lookout. We also went to a nice beach, city area called Mission Bay and stuck our feet in some black sand at the Piha beach.

Going into the first day of school here, I knew from my research that Swanson School was going to be a more relaxed style of learning than the States and that there was a big emphasis on play for students. However, I was still extremely shocked — in a good way — by the first day. I am with year 1 & 2 which are the same ages as Kindergarten and 1st graders in the states. A big part of the day was spent outside during their two 40 minute breaks and another 45 minutes for “fitness.” This fitness block happens a few times a week. During this time, all five of the year 1/2 classes head outside, and each teacher runs a station. Currently the stations are focused on track and field activities such as the high jump, which my station worked on. In addition to these breaks and fitness time, frequently when students finish a learning task they are free to go play as long as they stay close to the classroom when outside. This amount of free play is significantly greater than I ever experienced as a student and ever saw while getting my education degree. I am excited to continue to experience it and learn about the benefits.

Now let me tell you the thing I love about New Zealand… BAREFOOT FEET! It was a little startling the first time I saw people barefoot in places that it seemed improper to me, but now that I am used to it I love it! I’ve seen kids barefoot walking the aisles of the grocery store, a barefoot man getting his food at a kebab restaurant, and people at the train station or walking the streets barefoot. At school, all of the students are expected to take their shoes off to come in the classroom. They are also not required to wear them during breaks so majority of students do not put them on again the rest of the school day. Barefoot feet is normal here, and I love it. Although I have not fully embraced it yet, I am sure I will soon be walking around barefoot all the time.

My first week here I have spent a lot of time observing and taking in everything. There are a few other things I found to be different than the States, or at least from what I have experienced in the States. First off, although they speak English, there are a lot of differences in what we call things. I added a new tab called “language” on my blog with a list of a few of them. In addition in the States when students are asked to sit up and show they are listening, they generally are expected to fold their hands. In New Zealand, students are expected to cross their arms. Another difference is when students in NZ raise their hand they point their pointers finger up. Last difference I have noticed between NZ and USA is that NZ includes a great amount of Maori (native NZ people) culture in their classrooms and every day life. The United States does not include a lot of Native American culture in the classroom. This is an interesting topic I will definitely blog more about later.

After the first week of school we hiked Rangitoto ,which is a dormant volcano. We also explored some of the lava caves. The weekend ended with a Halloween BBQ with our host families. Halloween has just recently started to happen in NZ so very few people celebrate. Only five out of my 25 students went trick-or-treating. That sums up life so far in NZ.

If you made it all the way to here thanks for reading my novel of a blog! Sorry for the extreme length! There is a lot to take in the first week! Hope you enjoyed 🙂