MOBILE, Alabama -- They flew all the way from Scotland to watch Shaska Crabtree teach second-graders at Griggs Elementary how to write, and re-write scary stories.
Through a partnership with the University of South Alabama, the three educators from the University of Glasgow wanted to learn more about how teachers here are trained. They were at Foley Elementary Wednesday and Griggs Elementary off Three Notch Road in Mobile today, and they’ll be at Dixon Elementary in Irvington Friday.
“We’re very honored to have them here,” said Stephanie Benson, principal at Griggs. “We hope they’ll be able to take some things back to help their students and teachers and that we’ll be able to learn from them as well.”
Officials with both colleges are trying to get new ideas from each other on how to improve their education programs. South provides the vast majority of teachers in Mobile and Baldwin county public schools, and the University of Glasgow graduates about 450 new teachers a year.
Here, college students majoring in education spend about a year and a half in local classrooms. They start out observing and visiting schools a couple of times a week. Before they graduate, they spend at least an entire semester student-teaching.
For Crabtree’s student-teaching, she’s alternating between leading lessons and assisting the veteran classroom teacher she’s working with, Joan Holland. This quarter, Crabtree and Holland are teaching students how to write different types of stories, ranging from stories about their friends to silly stories.
Crabtree is also learning how to teach special-education students through a process known as inclusion, where the special-education students sit alongside regular students and get extra help.
Student-teachers here are regularly observed by their college professors. Today, Phillip Feldman and Andi Kent, with South, watched Crabtree and then met with her afterward to talk about what she did well and what she could improve. The three visitors from Scotland participated in that debriefing.
In Scotland, college students can participate in either a one-year or four-year program to become teachers. The university there stresses allowing their student- teachers to also spent time observing how other grades are taught. That way, said Beth Dickson, head of the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, a student who wants to teach high school, for example, can learn about organization from an elementary teacher.
Dickson, along with her colleagues from Scotland and South, agreed that Crabtree was in her element today, and that she’ll be a great teacher. Crabtree read a story and then encouraged her students to look over rough drafts they had written and try to go back and replace some of the words they’d used with more descriptive words.
Walking around the room, Crabtree helped students with their vocabulary. She encouraged them to use details and sounds, such as “eeeek” to describe an old, creaky door, and “ahhh!” to illustrate a scream.
One girl was writing about her "Vampire Puppy," another about a "Two-Headed, Six-Toed Monster," and another about "The Big Night," during which she woke up and saw a big, ugly leprechaun in her house.
As the case is here, Dickson said she firmly believes that her university students should spent lots of time working in school classrooms so they’ll learn the art of teaching.
“If you don’t support those teachers in those early stages, they can make mistakes,” Dickson said, “and they’ll never know they’re making mistakes.”