The following was written by an Indiana Wesleyan University student teacher teaching at the Moscow International School:
In the initial weeks of my placement in Moscow, I felt loneliness unlike I had ever experienced. I had no family, no friends, no neighbors to speak to, few Christians, a strange surrounding culture, and worst of all, no Taco Bell. I struggled for almost two months to find the meaning in my experience. Simply, why had God placed me so far from home?
The answer didn't come immediately. I found peace knowing that my mission was not to teach (as it would naturally seem) but to minister by being myself. You see, the school at which I taught was filled with English speakers, yet very few Christian teachers. I soon found that Jesus was not the coolest topic to bring up, and so I witnessed in silence, day by day.
During one of the final nights, the answer became clear that I had been placed in Moscow for one person. Christ was finally revealed to her in a new way, and because of her openness in telling me that, it was my humble honor to express to her that she was the reason I had found myself across the globe.
God still works. He may work slowly, and He may work mysteriously, but He certainly works.
-Cameron
Want to know how you can make this kind of difference in the life of a colleague as a student teacher?
Student teaching at Indiana Wesleyan University is the capstone semester that is the culmination of the courses, assessments and field experiences that comprise the Teacher Education Program. Students engage in a semester-long student teaching experience, sometimes spent in a single placement and sometimes in two, eight-week placements. In either arrangement, student teachers begin by observing and acclimating to the classroom, then gradually begin taking over individual classes until they have assumed the full-time role of classroom teacher.
Student teachers are observed six times by university faculty over the course of the semester. This collaboration is designed to support student teachers as they make the transition from student to professional educator.
