Student teachers come to Clarke County for second semester

Clarke County is hosting student teachers this second semester.

Jennifer Brandt, 22, of Osceola is at Murray Community Schools student teaching with Diane Miller in second grade.

Anna Brooks, 22, of Muscatine is at Clarke Community High School student teaching with Brandi Boyd in the agriculture department.

Both student teachers are at their schools for another 14 weeks.

Brandt earned her associate degree from Southwestern Community College after spending a semester at Des Moines Area Community College. She then went to Graceland University where she will graduate in April with a bachelor’s degree in elementary educations with endorsements in middle school math and science and a minor in ag business.

“I’ve always wanted to make a difference,” said Brandt. “It’s about being in that classroom from bell to bell and being that someone for the kids who don’t want to go home at night.”

The process for Brandt to get connected with Murray Community Schools was mostly through her field instructor at the Lamoni campus, who she worked for as a student worker. The most important part of student teaching for Brandt was to make sure that she stayed in the area.

“I know what Clarke is like because I spent 13 years of my life there, I spent two weeks in Central Decatur so I got a taste of that and Murray is in the same district as Central Decatur, just much smaller,” said Brandt. “To keep my name in the community that I want to stay around, it just made sense.”

Brandt will graduate from Graceland University in April. Once she passes her exams and gets her license, she can begin substitute teaching until school is out for the year.

She’ll be applying for jobs as soon as they open to the public.

“I’m kind of flexible,” said Brand. “People keep asking me, ‘What would you really prefer?’ and I don’t care, I just want a (teaching) job.”

Brandt is most interested in teaching at schools anywhere north of the Missouri border up to the Interstate 35 School District.

“Whoever has a good opportunity for me, I’m going to be knocking on their door,” said Brandt.

Brandt is excited to learn and grow through her experience at Murray Community Schools.

“It’s fun being a teacher. It’s fun getting to be nerdy and order book orders and cut out flash cards,” said Brandt. “It suits me.”

Brooks is a student at Iowa State University and will be graduating in May with her bachelor’s in agriculture education.

She knew she wanted to teach since she was a little girl.

"I was home schooled when I was growing up and I would always collect our old books, curriculums or lesson plans because I was like, one day I can teach someone else," said Brooks

Brooks grew up on a farm in Muscatine and went to Muscatine High School as a sophomore to take ag classes.

"I watched my ag teachers be able to impact students in a way I'd never seen anyone else do," said Brooks.

Brooks has spent the past four years at Iowa State University and chose to come to Clarke Community High School after going through the preferencing process.

"One of my main goals in student teaching was to see a (ag) program with solid classroom instruction," said Brooks.

Ag education is set up in a three-circle model— classroom instruction, FFA, which is leadership development, and supervised agriculture experience, which is work-based learning.

Brandi Boyd came highly recommended and Brooks is enjoying the time spent in her classroom.

"Brandi is always super energetic and very positive in her outlook and loves her students, so seeing how that plays out in the classroom and how the students respond to that has been really cool," said Brooks.

Brooks will start applying for jobs as soon as positions open to the public and looks forward to teaching somewhere in Iowa.