Mercer’s Tift College of Education provides undergraduate and graduate students alike a unique way into the education field through field placements across Macon's Bibb County School District.
While the program is a requirement to graduate from any education program within the state, Tift College creates opportunities for students to be present inside classrooms as early as the spring semester of their freshman year.
There are multiple types of field placement courses available to students: pre-practicum, practicum and student teaching.
During the pre-practicum courses, students spend a few hours each week throughout the semester in a strictly observing position at a nearby school within Bibb County. In practicum courses, students are placed in a classroom for at least 80 hours over the course of their semester, allowing them to take a more active role, like leading class reading sessions and small group work.
In the most advanced role, the student teaching position, students are placed in a classroom for a minimum of 520 hours over the course of the semester, which adds up to full-time teaching hours, allowing students to be responsible for the whole class for the duration of the school day.
When preparing for their placements, undergraduate students are able to request any school within the public school district. If there is not a current working relationship, faculty will reach out to request a “cooperating teacher” at that particular school, according to Nicole Lutch, director of field placement at Tift College.
A cooperating teacher is the host teacher within the local schools for incoming Mercer students, Lutch said.
The program creates the foundation for many of the undergraduate students' teaching careers as well as provides the next steps for graduate students. Many of the graduate students who are going through the program are already employed within schools, allowing them to continue their placements within their own classrooms.
As a 2020 graduate of the program, Lutch provided insight into students who choose to remain in the Macon area after graduation to begin their careers.
“I had many classmates who stayed in their same Bibb County schools for their teaching careers. We have multiple students every year who choose to stay in Macon to teach,” Lutch said.
But the experience does not always retain Mercer students after they graduate. Brendan Gibbons ‘27 is in the secondary education program with a focus on history. He is in his first semester of field placements after transferring to Mercer expressly for the program.
“Unless an opportunity presented itself by the time I graduated, I would likely move back home,” Gibbons, who is originally from Illinois, said.
Claire Bussler ‘28, a student in the secondary education program with a focus in English, said she is in a similar situation.
“I would mainly need to see what’s going on,” Bussler said. “I’m planning to graduate, go back home, and teach around until I get my Master's.”
This program provides insight for students trying to make decisions about their futures, said Susie Morrissey, associate professor of mathematics education at Tift College.
Within the surrounding school system, opportunities for students enrolled in the program to select schools, grade levels, types of administration and many other factors can be beneficial when deciding their future career in the education system, Lutch added.
“Having current Mercer students, who are learning new research and best practices, collaborating with veteran teachers across Bibb County, creates a positive environment,” Lutch said.
Ryleigh Sandefur '28 is a Journalism and History double major at Mercer University. She loves writing for The Cluster and photography, and she enjoys watching movies, hockey and baseball, as well as crafting in her free time.
