Education Students Share Experiences at Milwaukee Voucher School
Time for a Field Trip
Elementary students love taking school field trips, and college students are no different.
Education students in Mr. David Handyside’s Education Seminar class and Mr. Jerry Kolwinska’s Human Relations class recently took a field trip to visit the Academy of Excellence (AoE) in Milwaukee, WI.
MBU students boarded the Sabercat bus at 7 a.m. and arrived shortly before the start of the school day. Then each MBU student joined an AoE teacher to observe classes for the morning.
About Academy of Excellence
Teachers at AoE work each day to shine God’s light into the lives of their students. The school first opened in the summer of 2012 as a summer school and started its first full school year that same fall. AoE operates as a private Christian school participating in the voucher (school choice) program.
“The school was started as an opportunity to reach into homes in Milwaukee with the gospel, while offering families a free Christian education,” shares Lynn Buhrow (’11), Intervention Director and MBU Teacher Education graduate. “Today we have three campuses reaching over 800 students. The demographic we serve at our south campus is approximately 70 percent Hispanic, 25 percent African-American, and 5 percent other.”
Handyside and Kolwinska look forward to this AoE field trip each semester because it helps students gain experience in an inner-city setting. Students also gain exposure to AoE as a possibility for future employment. In fact, nine MBU graduates now work at the school. Current MBU students also volunteer to both tutor and assist in coaching.
Teachers Talk Back
For the future teachers, the field trip proved beneficial in many ways—by affirming their calling and opening their eyes to the needs of inner city students and the joy of the teachers who teach them.
Rachel Christensen (senior, Elementary Education, MT) was struck by the importance of sharing the gospel with the students. “For some, school is the only place where they might hear the gospel. Although we were not at the school for long, it was eye opening to the fact that these students need a good role model. As a teacher, I want to be setting a good, godly example for my students.”
“I also appreciated the dedication and patience of each teacher,” said Nichole Matson (junior, Humanities-Cross Cultural, IN). “I was specifically impacted by their willingness to personally invest in the students’ lives instead of merely investing in the students’ academics.
Maisy Alldredge (junior, Physical Education and Health, WI) agreed.
“We need to have patience with our students in the classroom,” Alldredge stated. “Obviously it’s easier said than done, but being at the AoE really reinforced this idea and helped me realize the importance of practicing patience with the students and their progress.”
Megan Leaf (senior, Math Education, MN) was put to work almost immediately.
She shared, “I learned how to prepare a lesson in a short amount of time. The cooperating teacher handed the other MBU student and me the textbook and asked us to teach the lesson. This experience showed us how to prepare a lesson and teach without much preparation. Although I am sure this method is not recommended, it was rather exhilarating!”
Jedidiah Marsh (sophomore, Physical Education and Health, FL) was able to connect the classroom management skills he learned at MBU to what he practiced at AoE.
He stated, “The experience gave me a desire to work with inner-city children, which may change where I try to get my future teaching job.”
To Handyside and Kolwinska, responses like these make the field trip worthwhile.