Bio: Miller, Joanne (Student Teacher – 1959)
 
Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Miller, Schmunk

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 29 Jan 1959

I went into student teaching thinking of the grade I would receive in the course, and I departed at the end of nine weeks wondering how much I had been able to teach the pupils. This is the essence teaching. Joanne Miller, a 1955 graduate of Greenwood High School, said as she completed her nine weeks of student teaching as a senior at Whitewater State College, Whitewater.

Miss Miller taught at Whitewater City High School, Whitewater, under the supervision of Mrs. Paul Schmunk, critic teacher.

Required for a degree in Miss Miller's major field of business education, the course consisted of nine weeks of actual teaching. During that period Miss Miller was in complete charge of the class, and was as close to the real teaching situation as possible. The experience she had with her 16 pupils left a lasting impression on her.

"Grades were a major problem with me," she said. "I do not like to give a low grade any more than I like to receive one."

Another of her problems was keeping the students on the subject material, because many students ask irrelevant questions. She believes every question should be answered to the best of the teacher's ability, regardless of how minor it seems.

Discipline is a minor problem if the pupils were kept interested and busy, Miss Miller discovered. She believes the students want the teacher to succeed. "A teacher is like a public speaker," she said. "The pupils get restless in a boring class, just as the audience loses interest while listening to a poor speaker."

Miss Miller advises high school students to think seriously about teaching as a profession. I fet the challenge and need for good teachers when I shifted from the student level to the teacher's level. She loves the sense of accomplishment, variety of people, complexity of situations, and constant challenge that makes teaching for her, the most enjoyable profession a young person can enter.