Do you love kids? Have you dreamed about teaching kids in the future? Are you going into your junior or senior year?  If you answered “yes” to these questions, then there is a class at Rocky for you. Teacher Cadet is a class where students get to learn more about teaching, as well as go and actually teach kids.

This class has some requirements to get in. The first is that students have to have a 3.0 GPA and good recommendations from your teachers. Then during registration in the spring, students will pre-register for the class in order to get an application sent for them to fill it out and return to Ms. Mauch. Ms. Mauch, who runs the program stated, “Most people who apply and have the right grades get in.”

Ms. Mauch explained that Teacher Cadet, “Is a class where students as juniors or seniors can take an honors levels class and explore the field of education. Half of the class is exploring legal issues in the field of education, what barriers some students might have, child development, and how the system works. Then for the second half, they are student teaching in a middle or elementary school four days a week to ensure that it is a career that they are interested in doing in the future.”

When Ms. Mauch was asked if this class is beneficial for students who want to be a teacher she said, “Absolutely. I think that the nerves that you have starting out teaching are gonna happen no matter what when you start teaching and getting some of those nerves out as a future teacher so early I think really helps them in moving forward. I think it’s nice for people who don’t know if they want to be a teacher because they learn quickly that it isn’t for them. I have had four students in the past two years decide that ‘yep, nope, teaching isn’t for me,’ which I’m really glad they were able to do before they spend all that money on a degree they wouldn’t use and I think it has also helped kids identify whether they want to teach younger kids or not.”

While in this class, students get the chance to go to grades K-8 where they have mentor teacher who helps them learn more about teaching in a real classroom. Students get to give out lessons while building relationships with the class they teach. They will be in a class every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

To anyone interested in taking this class next year they should know, “You can get four college credits through Front Range for taking the class and if you take it as a junior you are eligible to take Teacher Cadet 2 as a senior which is all field placement. You get to do two more field placements and be in the classroom for a lot more college credit. So, it is a really great way to launch your future in education.” For any more information, go to room 344 and talk to Ms. Mauch.