Education majors get sneak peek into classroom teaching through Williamsport partnership

More than 40 education majors from Commonwealth University’s Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield locations recently got an inside look at each level of public education thanks to a collaborative project with the Williamsport Area School District.

The district-wide Field Day experience was made possible by a $9,000 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) grant awarded to Dr. Priya Poehner, professor of education at CU-Lock Haven, and Dr. Daniel Roesch, associate professor of teaching and learning at CU-Bloomsburg, to promote “Sweetening the Teaching Experience” and to focus on building partnerships with area schools.

“This collaborative project provides students from all CU campuses the opportunity to observe and be mentored by master teachers in the K-12 district classrooms,” Poehner said.

CU students were matched with teachers from their respective major emphasis — elementary, mid-level, and secondary education — at Hepburn Lycoming, Lycoming Intermediate, Williamsport Middle School, and Williamsport High School. They then spent the day observing and interacting with Williamsport teachers and students in classrooms, after an orientation session led by Williamsport administrators Dr. Richard Poole, assistant superintendent, Dr. Brandon Pardoe, dean of student services, and Kristin Takach, secondary curriculum director.

“That was by far the most important and valuable activity in my entire semester,” said Ron Timko, a CU-Lock Haven secondary education major. “I would confidently guess that, once this is all said and done, it'll be the single most important event of my academic career. It succinctly and effectively bridged the gap between theory and practice, at a time when that gap seemed daunting and somewhat terrifying.”

Participating students included: Emily Smeal, Emily Born, Bailee Fox, Isaiah Williams, Caroline Kauffman, Rachel Maurer, MaKenna Matthews, Mackenzie Vozniak, Wanda Meredith, Skylar Lininger, Kayla Bennett, Gabby Finn, Hannah Lopez, Megan Chuhran, Kasie Saville, Levi Storrs, Russ Gleeson, Addison Heasley, Ron Timko, Meghan Corkle, Huaixin Xue, Avery Jessell, Isaac Owens, Antonio Perilli, Madison Kouf, Charles Chambliss, Katherine King, Ashley Ibarguen Gomez, Nicole Wood, Megan Mengel, Kelley Zarzycki, Chloe Corter, and Elliot Dunn.