Educators Rising Attends Course Kickoffs
Launch the media gallery 1 playerPlainview Educators Rising members Landon Hergert, Ashlyn Forbes, and Lucea Miller, accompanied by Teacher Leader Ronita Jacobsen, recently attended the Course Kickoffs for the Education and Training Pathways held in Milford Sept. 1. The event was organized and led by course developers Katie Soto (ESU 9), Lynne Herr (ESU 6), and Erin Hamilton (ESU 4), alongside guest speaker Sarah Hardin of Mullen High School, NE Teacher of The Year.
Katie Soto opened the session by guiding students through a series of interactive activities designed to introduce the "Grow Your Own" initiative and the core curriculum of the three pathway courses. Throughout the day, students gained insight into upcoming projects—including Exploring Education Careers, Job Interview, Project Visualize, and Interactive Bulletin Board—while reflecting on the core purpose and motivation behind entering the field. Soto demonstrated several instructional strategies, including Quiz Quiz Trade, Grouping By Cards, Line Up, 2 Truths and a Lie, and Response Cards. Different student callbacks were also incorporated throughout the day along with lots of “whys” and “purposes”. The day concluded with "The Maze," a collaborative exercise focused on teamwork and communication. Featured speaker Sarah Hardin, the Nebraska Teacher of the Year from Mullen High School, engaged students through a hands-on presentation. She challenged students to figure out how an object worked in the “Reverse Engineering Challenge”. Following the activity Hardin explained that Engineering is not just about building things. It is a way of approaching problems, teaching ideas, learning from evidence, and improving a design. She applied this concept to teaching and designed learning experiences for students. Students then had an opportunity to design a future learning experience.
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Landon and Ashlyn currently are taking PK-12 Instructional Design this year while Lucea is taking Teaching as a Profession this fall and Human Development and Cognition in the spring. All students will participate work-based learning experience
Plainview High School continues to participate in Grow Your Own (GYO) as we work to meet the increasing teacher shortage across Nebraska as well as the United States. This is the third year offering Introduction to Professional Education (EDU 150) as dual credit through Wayne State College, which is accepted at other colleges throughout Nebraska through transfer credit. Next semester, students will have the opportunity to take Human Development and Cognition for dual credit (EDU 250), which is Course II. This second course will involve 20 observation hours within a classroom in addition to their classroom work. Students who complete both EDU 150 and EDU 250, are eligible to take Course III EDU 275 PK-12 Instruction Design which is also dual credit through Wayne State College. Lifespan Development (FCS115), which has been part of Plainview curriculum for years, has an updated curriculum. This semester course is recommended to be taken before EDU 150. It is also dual credit and one of the options of Core Tenant 9 at Wayne State College.