Student teachers have come and gone from Fair Grove over the last few years. Mr. Nathaniel Cuellar and Mrs. Christina Lindsay, formerly known as Ms. Story, are past English student teachers. Student teaching is a program to help future educators in the pursuit of being a teacher. They make their own lesson plans, teach classes, and help the students as if they were a teacher. It helps them gain experience in the teaching field before they are out of college.

In the fall of 2016, Nathaniel became a student teacher, teaching with one of our high school English teachers, Joseph Florez. Cuellar states, “My experience as a student teacher was great. I remember being really nervous when I first began.” He taught with Florez, helping him with his English 1 and English 3 classes. Cuellar said, “Student teaching helped me in numerous ways.” He added, “I learned to create my own lesson plans, how to teach effectively and confidently in front of high schoolers, and it was a place I could learn from the mistakes I made as a young educator.” Currently, Cuellar is an English teacher at Lecanto High school in Lecanto, Florida. Cuellar’s goals for his teaching career is to make learning fun for his students. Cuellar said, “I want my students to find learning fun, particularly when it comes to English and reading.” Another goal of his is to pursue his masters degree in some form of education.

In the spring of our 2016-17 school year Mrs. Lindsay became a student teacher helping Michelle Wahlquist with her English classes. Christina was at Fair Grove High School for 16 weeks. She was teaching with Mrs. Wahlquist, helping with all of her sophomore English 2 classes and an English 3 class. Lindsay said, “Fair Grove has wonderful students to work with, and I was able to experience Fair Grove’s wonderful, positive environment.” Lindsay is currently working at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, teaching freshman and junior English classes. Christina commented, “It is very different from Fair Grove. It is a larger school, so I only get to meet and teach a small fraction of the students.” Christina’s goals as a teacher are to make sure that what she teaches, can be used in real life situations for their life now, or in the future. “For my teaching career, I have decided to be positive every day.”