A teaching lab built by alumni, designed for future educators
For Western Michigan University teacher candidates, some of the most powerful lessons happen when coursework meets the reality of an elementary classroom.
That is exactly what WMU alumni Darryl Blasingame, principal of 12th Street Elementary, and Jeremy Zonts, principal of Haverhill Elementary in Portage, are helping make possible.
In partnership with WMU’s Office of Clinical Experiences and the College of Education and Human Development, Blasingame and Zonts are helping co-construct a teaching lab designed to give future educators meaningful, experience-driven learning in real school settings.
For the two principals, the work is more than a university partnership. It is an opportunity to give back to the institution that helped shape their own careers while investing in the educators who will follow them.
Bringing coursework into the classroom
Through the teaching lab, WMU teacher candidates have opportunities to move beyond discussing teaching strategies in a college classroom and see how those ideas come to life with real students.
Candidates work alongside WMU faculty and experienced school educators as they build relationships with students, plan purposeful lessons, respond to individual learning needs and develop a deeper understanding of the decisions teachers make every day.
The experience gives students a chance to ask questions, try new approaches and learn within the environment they are preparing to enter.
For Blasingame and Zonts, that kind of hands-on learning is an important part of helping future teachers build both skill and confidence.
“Teaching is more than a profession; it is an opportunity to change lives.”
Their hope is that candidates leave the teaching lab with a clearer understanding of the profession, greater confidence in their abilities and excitement about the impact they can have on students and school communities.
Alumni investing in the next generation
The teaching lab also creates something that extends beyond a single group of teacher candidates.
By welcoming WMU students into their schools, Blasingame and Zonts are creating opportunities for current educators to serve as mentors, share their expertise and reflect on their own practice. Teacher candidates, in turn, bring new ideas, questions and perspectives into the schools.
That exchange creates a learning environment for everyone involved.
It also reflects a powerful cycle of mentorship. Blasingame and Zonts once came through WMU as students preparing for careers in education. Today, as school leaders, they are using their classrooms, faculty relationships and professional experience to help prepare the next generation of Broncos.
Their involvement shows the impact alumni can have when they remain connected to the university, not only by supporting WMU, but by creating spaces where current students can learn through experience.
Strengthening the bridge between preparation and practice
Partnerships like the teaching lab help strengthen the connection between university preparation and the realities of today’s schools.
For teacher candidates, that means more opportunities to learn by doing. For school partners, it means a chance to help shape future educators. And for WMU alumni like Blasingame and Zonts, it is a meaningful way to pass forward the knowledge, mentorship and experiences that helped shape their own careers.
By bringing university faculty, school educators and future teachers together, the partnership is helping create a stronger bridge between preparing to teach and becoming the kind of educator who can make a lasting difference.
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