Photos by Ralph Freso
Three college students are perched on little chairs in front of the kindergarten class, squirming but sitting crisscross applesauce on their proper color square of rug. A child's hand shoots up.
“Is college in a desert?” asked one boy.
“If you stand outside the school building and you look across the street and you see all the really tall buildings, that’s where we are,” answered Kristen Keller, a senior at Grand Canyon University. “So you’re really close to us.”
The students of Alhambra Traditional School on 27th Avenue are getting closer by the day.
A new partnership with GCU’s College of Education launched this fall with 28 early childhood education students crossing the street to Alhambra for some of their courses, for observation of Alhambra teachers, and to get in front of a class for the first time without having to wait until student teaching their senior year.
COE assistant professor Dr. Jena Akard is embedded at the site in GCU’s own space supplied by the school, outfitted with Lopes pennants and décor and its own little teacher’s lounge with a sofa, microwave, refrigerator and sink.
Akard calls the partnership an example of “scaffolding” to build a teacher. They get the theory and coursework in this room, then go down the hall to observe and eventually work with a mentor teacher, she said. “We see this as a steppingstone to get prepared and understand the classroom.”
COE Dean Dr. Meredith Critchfield said it’s also a way to support Alhambra staff in an era when schools are often short of educators, while helping GCU students gain experience, similar to the partnership with nearby Westwood Elementary School a few years ago.
“We’re getting them ready by doing the work of a teacher, or as close to it as possible. Often, that’s our mantra in COE – early and often – get in early, get in often and you’re gonna be a better teacher than if you wait until student teaching.”
Alhambra Traditional School is a neighbor. They’ve worked together with GCU on the 27th Avenue Collab, a multipronged community effort to improve safety in the area, which has struggled with crime. Principal Andrew Feight said perception of the neighborhood is important, because if you don’t attract kids to the school, you don’t get the state money to keep teachers.
But he said Alhambra Traditional has been able to do that, with 40% of its students coming from outside the neighborhood, by building a staff with many teachers of more than 20 years experience and a preK-8 school with a top-10 ranking in the state, although 80% of students live below the poverty line.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to get more quality people working with kids, we’ll take advantage of it. (GCU students) are really bright, and they’re open to learning,” he said. “They really want to invest in their understanding of the underlying pedogogical practices.”
He said it takes two to three years to become a good teacher for most, so proper preparation will only help his students.
“It’s going to make them better teachers, which means that they’re going to have a greater effect on kids. You get to be part of an inception point. Because teaching is hard when you do it wrong, it’s harder when you do it right. So if we can just get them headed down the path where you know they feel success early on in their career because they saw good teaching, that’s when you get people locked in for life.”
On a recent day, Akard was pacing the GCU-Alhambra classroom, enticing her students to share what they had observed in classrooms that morning. They mentioned how the teachers were constantly asking questions, giving rewards, playing a song during a classroom transition, and letting go of distractions.
“What are you doing to maintain focus?” Akard asked.
After senior Lyiesha Thompson emerged from a science class, she was impressed with the teacher.
“I saw her just making it impactful for them. I want to make that impact, too, so when they’re older they remember that we did this one experiment and maybe that one experiment can lead them to become a scientist or want to do experiments that impact the world,” she said.
Junior Paisley Gerdon said she can use classroom management strategies she witnessed.
“One thing that I noticed was her not pointing out the behavior but just ignoring it and moving on and directing the focus rather than calling out the behavior,” she said.
Senior Loretta Matthews said the embedded program feels more like a practicum; they can learn the standards and theories but then practice it right in the classroom.
They can get feedback from fellow GCU students, who each time they come to Alhambra pick up something different.
“We have to be able to adapt, get out of our comfort zones, because it is our first step into the classroom with a whole group, working with behaviors or just learning our own teaching,” Thompson said. “This is getting us in the door.”
The door was closed in that kindergarten room and the three GCU students watched Alhambra teacher Ashley German do her magic. In 13 years at the school, she can work the room like a maestro – hands on your desks, eyes ahead, sound out the word – calling out names and asking, asking.
Keller watches and writes in her notebook: “Call and response” and “Stops to ask questions” atop a long list.
“Every day they look at you like you are the best thing in the world. They eat up every word, and they just want to please,” German said afterward of loving to teach. “In the thick of it, I’m tired, exhausted, and then its January and light bulbs go off and you’re like, oh my God, they’re writing, they’re starting to read.”
It’s what she wants GCU students to get: early childhood educators are an important first steppingstone to the rest of a child’s education. It’s what her enthusiastic mentor teacher 13 years ago taught her.
“In the classroom they are learning about standards and objectives, those things that make your job your job. But how do you build a relationship with a child in order for them to want to learn?”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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