A Teaching Methods Orientation took place at WTAMU on Sept. 9 to help prepare Education students for the real world of professional teaching outside the classroom.

Approximately a hundred students crammed together inside room 433 of the Classroom Center to get a taste of what the professional world is like outside the walls of WT.

“This orientation is helping [the students] get launched into that field service, that actual clinical practice,” Dr. Cartwright, John O’Brien Distinguished Chair in Education, said.

Guest speakers and professors alike discussed the expectations of students inside and outside the classroom during student teaching.

“If [the students] come out of a family or culture that hasn’t done a lot of connection or understanding, [or if] nobody in their family has been a teacher, we want to make sure they really know what’s to be expected,” Cartwright said.

During the orientation, students were given a crash course in many different aspects of professionalism, including what to wear.  To help the students dress for success, models from EDPD 4340 paraded proper dresses, suits, and shoes to wear in the classroom. Buff Boutique, a clothing closet filled with donated clothes and accessories suitable for interviews, also offered its services to the Education students attending.

“They’re not students anymore so no inappropriate dress. Not too low, not too short, not too tight, just professionalism,” Cartwright said.

A panel of professionals from Amarillo Independent School District, known as the “toast panel” for their “If You Don’t Know This, You’re Toast” perspective, also shared their knowledge and experiences with the students. Donna Hill, instructional technology teacher of Tascosa Cluster, discussed the relationship between teachers and technology.

“Because of social networking things have changed a lot, you have to keep your personal life and professional life separate,” Hill said.

It’s no secret that college students have a tendency to be late for classes every once in a while. However, Dr. Amy Andersen, department head of Education, stressed the unprofessionalism of such a habit as part of being a professional teacher.

“If your kids expect you at ten, then you better be there at ten,” Andersen said.

Besides fashion shows and toasts, the orientation also taught students how to write a proper resume. Slides projected the “do and don’ts” of resume writing and tricks students could use to make their resumes stand out.

Education major Lyndie Thrall attended the orientation last semester and said the resume lecture was the part she remembered the most.

“I think that’s a really good idea to help teaching students get their resumes ready and submitted on Buff Jobs by a certain time so they can try to help us get as many jobs as possible once we graduate,” said Thrall.

Though the orientation was designed to help students ease the stress and confusion of facing the professional world, anxiety still lingers among some students. However, for Education major Ruth-Ann Day, this anxiety only pushed her to have more faith in what she’s learning.

“You have to be confident in what the university is teaching you,” said Day.

At the end of the two-hour orientation, students possessed a plethora of information guides, applications, and resume checklists. They also took with them a new understanding of what it means to be a professional teacher and what it will take to reach that point.

“I think it really spells everything out and they can really plan their whole semester around all the activities that they’re going to have,” said Andersen.