“Exploring the Teaching Profession” is a new duel credit class that encourages students to learn how to work with children and become better versions of themselves.
“It has allowed us as the high school teacher to create the correct kind of direction, the correct path,” Steve Lamberti, humanities division head who is also teaching the class, said.
The class is a weighted grade and is sponsored though the University of St. Francis, meaning that upon passing the class, the students will receive three college credits at that university.
“Everyone gets a chance to share their opinion and it’s less intimidating,” Acacia Gottschalk, junior, said.
“Exploring the Teaching Profession” counts as a CTE credit similar to art, cooking, and languages. It runs only third period for one semester. Students in the class are helped to realize what they want to teach in the classrom.   “I’ve always wanted to teach kids how to love before they learn how to hate,” Camden Cook, senior, said.
The class teaches not only what it’s like to be an educator, but also a leader. Lamberti talks about how those taking the class don’t only want to be teachers but also nurses.
“Since teaching does help kids in so many aspects, I do think that class could be helpful to see if [teaching] is a possible career path,” Julie Banholzer, counselor, said.
The students observe different classrooms within the school for half of third period and then talk about it for the rest. Students have an opportunity to observe other schools such as kindergartens and middle school.
“We really try to touch on as much as we can to get students to think about what it would be like to be an educator. We talk about things such as your philosophy and who you are as a person and get into the big picture education base,” Lamberti, said.