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| Mr. Vander Sluis |
by Berta G.
Today I interviewed Mrs. Ryken and Mr. Vander Sluis, her student teacher. Mrs. Ryken is the 8th-grade math and algebra teacher; she’s the only algebra teacher, but there is another math teacher. Mr. Vander Sluis is her student teacher for this semester. He studies at USD (which was one of the questions I had asked him)
For my first question, I asked both of them what made them want to teach. Mrs. Ryken responded that she’d always wanted to be a teacher since she was young (she said since she was about eight, too). Mr. Vander Sluis answered that he had many good teachers and coaches in high school, which influenced him. He also said he wants to help us students.
The second question I asked them was, “How has the school year been?” Except for Mr. Vander Sluis, it was how his past month at the school had been. Mrs. Ryken said it’s been good, just average so far, except for when we celebrated her 50th birthday, and Mrs. Belgum (the band teacher) had the 3rd period band class play the birthday song for her. Mr. Vander Sluis responded that it’s been good here, just different from his last school, where he was at Vermillion High School.
From this point on, the questions I asked were different. I had asked Mrs. Ryken what her favorite thing to teach was. She responded with systems of equations, which she taught in both algebra and math! My question to Mr. Vander Sluis was: What things make him nervous about teaching? He had to think for a few moments, but he had decided that it was about putting everything he had learned together and just doing a good job.
For my next question, I asked Mr. Vander Sluis what he was going to teach. He said the grade was still undetermined, but he knew he would be teaching math! I asked Mrs. Ryken how she liked having a student teacher, and she said she really likes it. She likes helping people who want to be teachers because she knows one day she won’t be teaching anymore. I took it to mean that she wants to help ensure there are good teachers out there, even if it’s just one or two. I don’t know if that’s what she meant, but that’s the way I took it. For my fifth question, I asked her if there were any cons of having a student teacher. She took a moment to think, but ultimately decided there was none.
At the end of the two interviews, I asked them both if there was anything they wished to add. Mr. Vander Sluis said no, there’s nothing that he can think of, but Mrs. Ryken did have some things to add. She said she enjoys helping students meet their goals and learn new things, and she enjoys teaching 8th-grade math. She also revealed that she’s been teaching for the past 25 years (so for half her life)! She’s only ever taught math, never anything else, but for 20 years she taught 7th grade, and only started teaching 8th-grade math five years ago. She’s taught it for only one-fifth of her entire career. That wraps up my interviews with them. Have an amazing second semester, and go, Bucks and Gazelles!
