Meet Jordan: Secondary education

Yes! My favorite teacher growing up was my junior year history teacher, Mr. Winchester. He is the most amazing person ever. He taught in a way that not only made you think critically but also made you feel like you were heard. He never made the classroom feel like a classroom, he made it feel like a communal space. He was so open to new ideas and always listened, while we were still learning. He let you express yourself however you wanted to and made you feel like you were an entire person and not just a student or an athlete.  

"You're beautiful, you're loved, you're heard and you're appreciated."

I love going to the hockey and basketball games!

You should 100% apply. WMU has been an experience that I wouldn't trade for the world. The classes are so amazing and you never feel like help or support is out of reach. The faculty are always there to support you and the students at WMU are always looking to help and collaborate.

My favorite part of the program is doing teacher shadows because it gave me a chance to go back to my old high school and shadow some teachers that I had. It gave me an entirely different perspective on them and a deeper respect for them. I was able to interact with the students in different age groups and look at their curriculum that they are learning and compare that to what I am learning has been really cool. I also really love the size of the classes. I have people in my classes that I have been with since freshmen year. It has been really cool to move on with them and always be able to have someone that I know in my class. I never feel like the classes are too big that I will drown. Since it's such an interpersonal major, already having those relationships with students that I have had in previous classes has been amazing. Also, the teachers make it really easy to make those connections if there are people that I don't know.

I have loved the faculty at WMU, they are super understanding and so kind. They are there to help you and there to listen. They don't treat you like a number or a sea of students, even in my biggest lecture, I never felt like my professor didn't know who I was.

The one thing I am going to be taking with me in my future classroom is the ability to humanize each other. I think it's really hard sometimes, especially when you are in an authoritative position, to remember that students are students but they are also people and also teachers are teachers but they are also people too. So making sure that everyone has a mutual respect and love towards eachother is going to make for a very safe, collaborate and critically thinking classroom.

I've always loved working with kids and it has always been such a fulfilling job for me. As long as I have known, I have always wanted to teach things. I always loved helping people in class and doing peer-editing. My favorite subject was English. I thought I might as well put those two things together and see what happens!