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Rocky road ahead for USU elementary teacher By
Hilary Ingoldsby Jennifer Shaw's alarm sounds at 5 a.m. She creeps out of her bed tip-toeing out to the front room, as to not awake her roommate, and sits in front of a brightly painted purple, blue and yellow painted dresser where she puts on her make-up and curls her blonde shoulder length hair. She leaves her apartment before any of her roommates are even awake and sometimes before the sun rises. Jennifer is then on her way to school, but she's not headed to Utah State University for an early morning class although she is a college senior. She's on her way to elementary school. Miss Shaw, as she is called by her students, is finishing up her student teaching and will graduate in the elementary education program at Utah State University in just days. She will then enter what every college student fears‹the real world. Jennifer has applied in almost every district in Utah, she said, but is nervous because of the present market for school teachers. "The market in Utah is really, really, really bad. Education is just not a priority in Utah," Jennifer said. However, despite the sometimes grim outlook Jennifer remains determined to do what she loves‹teach children. Jennifer grew up in St.George, Utah, the oldest of five children, and first thought about becoming an elementary teacher in the third grade when she brought her mom to a parent-career day at her school. Jennifer's mom is also an elementary teacher and Jennifer was interested in following in her footsteps. Life plans took a change in route when Jennifer was in the fifth grade though. At that point in time Jennifer said she was interested in anything and everything. "I was into all those ography's that you can come up with like oceanography and anything else fairly random. I must have changed my mind about what career I wanted at least 30 times before really settling in and knowing," Jennifer said. Amid all the ography's and other interests even in the fifth grade Jennifer was interested in teaching because she had a teacher who made learning interesting and allowed the class to do great projects, she said. For that reason fifth grade was one of Jennifer's favorite years in school. Granted having her best friend in her class as well as the boy she had a crush on at the time helped, she said. After high school Jennifer attended Dixie College in St.George for a year majoring in secondary education when she was called to teach the Sunbeam class, a class of young children at her church. It was then that something clicked inside and Jennifer knew for a fact that she wanted to teach elementary school. "That was just it and all of a sudden I was here. I don't even know exactly how or when I changed my mind but it happened," she said. Jennifer then came to Utah State University. After her first year of introductory elementary classes she then had to be admitted into the program, a process that includes interviews and tests and leaves many students so nervous they can't eat or what they do eat doesn't stay in them for long. "Oh, I was nervous. People are nervous beyond all belief and are throwing up right before their interviews and everything. It seems like a huge deal at the time, but looking back after working so hard it's really nothing at all," Jennifer said. After years of classes and instruction Jennifer finally got to try her hand at teaching. This year Jennifer student taught for a first grade class and sixth grade class. "From that point out registering and campus life is over," Jennifer said. Despite the early mornings and lack of a more traditional college experience Jennifer loved student teaching. "I was able to more implement ideas learned in university courses and practice them," she said. Her teaching experience definitely kept her busy as she corrected papers at night, made lesson plans, created ideas for class projects and presentations and woke up at the crack of dawn to put it all together before her students arrived. "She works so hard because she cares about the students. She'd get up at 5 a.m. and was always on time. She's just cute checking her students papers at night," Stacie Palmer, Jennifer's roommate said. Jennifer said that hands-down the hardest aspect of student teaching was simply saying goodbye to the students she had grown to love and move on. Miss Shaw received cards and small gifts of appreciation from many of her students and even had students burst into tears and she left the classroom on her last day. Stacie believes Jennifer got such a reaction out of her students because she cares so much about them. She said that Jennifer was always thinking of new ways to reach her students and would bounce her ideas off her, such as using sugar cookies to make a model of Africa. Miss Shaw made sugar cookies for all her students who then nibbled the shapes of different African countries and then were given frosting and other decorations to mark certain important landmarks in the countries. "She's always thinking of what's best for the students, what they'll enjoy and what will reach them. She feels that she's not only teaching them math, science and english but that she's teaching them to be good citizens in the world," Stacie said. Along with being a great teacher Stacie added that Jennifer is a "sock fanatic" who loves instant potatoes and is a wonderful roommate who can make any situation funny. Jennifer would like to teach any elementary grade and will spend her summer working at a bookstore in St. George anxiously awaiting word from different school districts in Utah. If she doesn't get hired right away this year Jennifer plans on moving back to Logan to substitute teach. "I think she's really going to be a great teacher. I would love for her to teach my kids because she's all about making the kids feel good about themselves," Stacie said.
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