Student Teaching

My last semester at BYU was spent away from the track and campus. I was student teaching at Maple Mountain High School in Mapleton Utah. It was such an incredible experience and I feel so blessed to be able to have worked with the staff and kids there. I worked with Darrell Wyatt teaching his Introduction Psychology classes. Because of a rule change at BYU I also had to teach in my minor which is teaching psychical education and coaching. At first I was really upset but then I grew to love working with my mentor Haley Peck and teaching Zumba class. It was a blast!!!

Student teaching was not nearly as hard as everyone said it was going to be. The hardest time was when I had food poisoning and wanted nothing to do with anything. But I never stayed up late into the night/morning working on lesson plans or grading like my other classmates. I think it is because I was teaching psychology. It is an elective class so the students want to be there. The school itself is also unique. It just runs smoothly because parents and teachers care. Sometimes the parents cared a little too much but it was still very supportive.

My psychology classes were great and very rewarding. When I did activities that the students liked it was really fun to see them get into it. I definitely had my off days both with the kids and with teaching but I think that just comes with the job. My worst day ended up being a really fun day when the projector exploded and all my activities were with a projector. But it ended up working out just fine.

Zumba was so much fun to teach. I also taught an all guys PE class and they were a hoot. PE gave me my most interesting stories. One time on the same day, two girls got in a full on hair pulling (like literally clumps of hair on the ground) slapping fight. I had to break that up. I was scared to death when I went to break it up and so mad at them that all I could say was "what the heck are you doing?" the girls just stopped and looked at me and said "what does it look like?" The next class period a kid stopped dead in his track and stated he had a lizard in his pants. Being a prankster I was like, "ok whatever," but then he started really freaking out. I told him to go to the locker room and check (why he had a lizard in his pants was beyond me). Sure enough there was a lot of screaming and then he came out with a lizard. Apparently at lunch, him and his buddy found a lizard and were playing with it. They lost it and he thought it went up his sweatshirt but they couldn't find it. Well it did go up his sweatshirt and then down his pants.

Along with student teaching, I also helped coach the track team there. That was what made my time at Maple Mountain the best. I found out that I really like being on the other side of track and field. It was rewarding to see the slowest girl on the team run a new PR and be the happiest person in the world. It was incredible. I would run with them and help them with workouts and weight lifting. I worked with Brett Andrus, who happened to coach some of my teammates in high school and ran with Rich at BYU. Brett was incredible and really made me a part of the team and helped me be a leader. He listened to my input and we talked back and forth about what we should do. Brett always made me feel like an equal and just and intern. The girls did so well this year and it was fun to watch. Maddie Ball and Brittany Lund were some of my favorite girls. I ran a lot of miles with them and felt like I could give the a new perspective to running great. They ended up getting in the top 3 in the 32, 16, and 8 and won the 4x4. The Maple Mountain girls ended up winning state which was so much fun.