Eastern Michigan University - Aurora Yearbook (Ypsilanti, MI)

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pedagogical eye of the critic watching for points to bring up in critic meeting, and, at the same time, she must keep the interest of the class. The quarter comes to a close before the student feels more than begun in her new Work. She is now so interested, and the pupils are so bright and such good thinkers, that she is sorry to leave them, for, probably, in no other school will she ind children who have had such excellent training from the kinder- garten up through all the grades. Now the quarter is finished, and the student hastens to the office to get her mark. If it proves to be MQ' she is glad to get through, even with that, if a G, she is quite satished, and if an E, her joy is unbounded. Such is the Training School in the eyes of the Senior. She has worked hard at subject plans, lesson plans, papers on Attention and Interest, Perception and Apperceptionf' but she feels that the real thing which counts is the personal acquaintance with Superintendent, critic, and pupils, who all in their own way have helped her forward upon the pedagogical pathway she is eudeavoring to follow. 37

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The Training School as Seen by the Senior LULU M. JEFFERSON T THE OPENING of each quarter of the Senior year, one hundred thirty or forty Seniors prepare to take the formal step by which they enter the class of Student-Teachers in the Training School. Some do not know whether they would better ask for the grade in which they have had some experience, or the grade for which they have fitted themselvesg or whether to choose their critic and take the grade that goes with her. Even then, when the assignments are announced, if they are assigned to the grades they have chosen, they are among the few fortunate ones. Each student now repairs to her own grade room for the first critic meeting. The critic presents the bright side of the work, and makes her students feel her warm sympathy and her readiness to aid them.. Then she gives just a glimpse into the mysteries of the Lesson Plan, the student little realizing how small a glimpse it is until she attempts' to write her Hrst plan, which is her next duty. For the first few days the student-teacher merely observes the work of the critic, and prepares herself for the coming ordeal, when she shall have her own class to teach. Some are very anxious to begin teaching, realizing that the longer the evil day is put off, the more they will dread it, while others are deluded into thinking that, after a little, they will know better how to begin, and delay the awful day as long as possible. At last the student stands before her class for the first time. The pupils look at her with all-seeing eyes, and listen with all-hearing ears, they are curious to know if she is scart,', and they try her on all sides to see how she will meet them. If she is tactful, nrm, and full of the spirit of the lesson, she soon interests them, and her success is assured. If not, she has many a dreary, dreadful day before her. To add interest to the situation, she is conscious of the student-teachers sitting behind the class, taking notesg she feels the 36

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Tribute To The Facult T is easy and pleasant to say to our instructors, You have done much for us. We are grateful for what you have given us, of broader thought and inspiration and culture. We say these things truly and sincerely, for we know they have given us the ability to see life a little more clearly and under- standingly than we did before. But after all we are not yet ready to express our gratitude completely. We examine a line piece of mechanism and say, How wonderfully beautiful! The man who invented this has done a great work. We feel its beauty, we know that it is wonderfully constructed, but of what use is it? And so we feel a pleasure in our broadened views, our higher cultureg there is a certain joy in the knowing that we have grown, and in our glow of self-satisfaction we turn to our teachers, and thank them that they have helped us to this higher level. But what are we good for? When we have dem- onstrated our worth, when we have proved that we can be of real use to somebody in doing somcihing, then our tribute will mean more, both to our Faculty and to us, than is possible now. Every worker, we believe, is glad to have his efforts appreciated, but when a youth says to hin1, You have done much for me, and I am grateful, and then goes away, and seemingly forgets his teaching, or puts it to little use, the pleasure coming from this expression of thanks is tempered with disappointment. And so we feel, that while it is pleasant to us to express to our Faculty our appreciation and grati- tude, and while we know, too, that it will be received in the kindly spirit that has always been shown toward us, yet the fuller, better tribute can come only when we have shown by our lives and our work, that the teaching here has not been in vain, that it has made us truly something worth.