Kendra Chiles. |
Kendra Chiles of St. Marys will soon receive her Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education, Pre-K through third grade, from the Lake Campus of Wright State University.
As a final phase of the teacher education program, Chiles, like fellow education students, has been required to student teach for ten weeks during which she has had to prepare and implement lessons and carry out other teaching responsibilities. Kendra is completing her ten weeks in grade one at St. Marys East Elementary School under the observation of cooperating teacher Tammy Frische and university supervisor Linda Burkholder.
High-points in the student teaching experience are special to Chiles: “Having a Wright State professional tell me they would have loved to have had me teach their child and seeing the looks on students’ faces when they finally understand or realize what is being explained or taught to them are just a couple of the special things I have experienced,” Chiles notes.
Chiles says her interest in teaching began when she volunteered as an elementary school tutor at her son’s school and discovered she loved working with the students. She was married and had two children, however, before she began her education at the Lake Campus in 1994. At the same time she went to work as an educational aide for St. Marys schools, primarily within the special education department working with the learning disabled, multi-handicapped, and autistic students.
Chiles says her nine years of working in classrooms with “awesome professionals” has provided extremely enriching experiences for her. The hands-on experience, she says, has been very meaningful. “The hours of observation required by the education program are vital,” she notes.
Kendra has also added to the experience she has gained by working in the Lake Campus Reading Center and with Camp Read in the summer of 2002. “One of the students had a teddy bear named after me. That was pretty awesome and inspiring. But simply seeing the smiling faces and having students enjoy coming to school - that’s what it’s all about!”
When Kendra, a graduate of Memorial High School in 1979, came to the Lake Campus as a part-time student, she was soon to be divorced and a mother of two children. “Though it has been a long nine years, raising two children, working full time and attending classes, I did it! And teaching is definitely the career for me. Since I waited till I was older to return to college, now I can add my valuable life experiences to my career. I can fill all the required roles - educator, mother, nurse, guidance counselor, social worker, and so on. Teachers must be able to do it all! Now I’d like to inspire others to make the commitment to fulfill their dreams.”
Chiles hopes to obtain a full time teaching position soon and then to continue her education in pursuit of a master’s degree. When she does get that teaching job, she plans on using the same strategies and characteristics in the elementary classroom that she has tried to share with all the people she is in contact with, those of honesty, dependability, sincerity, determination, eagerness, empathy, and humor.
Chiles, in what little spare time she has since she works full-time, attends school, and mothers her two children, now 19 and 15, enjoys gardening, fishing and road trips - “when time allows,” she says.
