Watching Kristin Heath lead a group of third graders in a hands-on science experiment, you forget that she’s still a student herself. Kristin is a senior education major at Saint Mary’s College, but to the 20 kids in her class at Madison Primary Center in downtown South Bend, she is their teacher, “Miss Heath.”
Kristin says, “It’s just like you’re a regular teacher. You come in before the kids get here and leave after they leave. I have some friends who are education majors at other colleges, and I realize that we have a very unique placement setting. The fact that you are in the same classroom for an entire year is, I think, priceless.”
For Kristin, the education department’s emphasis on differentiated instruction (that is, using a variety of teaching strategies to meet the diverse needs of learners) has boosted her effectiveness. After graduation, Kristin will move to Boston to teach second grade at an inner-city school through the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps, earning a master’s degree in education at the same time.
