Charles City schools host UNI education students for a day

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Charles City community schools welcomed a new class of students to the district this week — college students.

Eighty students pursuing elementary education, high school science, special education and many other subjects boarded the “Purple Panther Bus” and visited classrooms across town Tuesday morning as part of the University of Northern Iowa’s new department trips to Iowa school districts.

UNI students were matched with Charles City teachers in the age group and content they are studying.

The initiative gives students new experiences outside school districts they feel familiar with, said Vickie Robinson, associate vice president for educator preparation.

“For a lot of our students, they know their own school district that they graduated from, and they maybe know the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area schools,” Robinson said. “To get them into different districts expands their knowledge base, their experience base and their networking base.”

The idea started with 40 students and a trip to the Muscatine Community School District last April.

“The purpose of that trip was to help our students have a more diverse experience. Muscatine has a large Hispanic population, so we wanted them to experience a district that is dealing with a lot of (English Language Learners) population,” Robinson said. “It was a wonderful experience for the students.”

UNI students met with Charles City building administrators and district TLC coaches while visiting multiple classes throughout the day. The response from undergraduates was immediate, Robinson said.

“I put an email invitation out to all of our pre-service teachers, and within 10 hours the 56 seats on the bus where taken,” Robinson said. “I ended up with a waiting list, and we brought two extra vans and another extra car.”

Robinson and four other UNI faculty members also spent the day visiting Charles City schools. The visit allows instructors to stay grounded in the field they teach, said Doreen Hayek, a project administrator in educational technology.

“I coordinate a lot of different grant projects, working with preK-12 teachers, helping them integrate technology into the classroom. So I’ve been around the state visiting a lot of different classrooms and bringing those teachers into UNI,” Hayek said. “To come out here and see it is just wonderful.”

“We have to be current,” Robinson said. That means being in the schools around the state and “really seeing what the real world is doing.”

“The schools are informing us as much as we’re informing the schools,” she said. “It’s a two-way street.”

From the district’s side, the event is an opportunity to meet 80 potential employees who will be graduating in the future, Superintendent Dan Cox said.

“The number of jobs in urban environments compared to in rural — the likelihood that these 80 are going to end up in a school like Charles City is pretty high whether it’s here or another district,” Cox said. “We owe it to the profession to help that next generation of teachers get off to a good start.”

“It really is different teaching in a UNI classroom verses teaching in a high school/middle school/elementary classroom, and it’s so advantageous to see what teaching looks like here,” Hayek said.