Letters from Friends
Well-prepared for first year
Nicole Pajer's Arizona school uses techniques she learned at EHE
Nicole Pajer
I am sending you an e-mail to let you know that I am really enjoying Arizona. The move has been an all-around amazing experience for me. I love where I work: Valley Vista High School in Sunshine, Arizona. The Culinary Arts program, where I am teaching Food Science and Creative Foods is growing fast. The students really enjoy it.
The school does a good job of supporting its first-year teachers. I've made so many new friends, including a number of people who are from Ohio, too. I really enjoy being a teacher, and although I was nervous at first, I am constantly reminded of how well you prepared us to teach.
Relaxed and ready to teach
For example, during the first few days of new teacher meetings, the content was about basic teaching strategies. I found it was all review for me thanks to your coaching. The principal is a big fan of Robert Marzano's instructional strategies; research based strategies such as creating clear objectives and goals for each lesson, using advance organizers and graphic organizers, and giving students specific, corrective, timely feedback-which you modeled for us and taught us to use so that we could become more effective teachers.
For another example, the school likes to do drop-in observations. Administrators and instructional coaches come in with their laptops and sit in the back of the room to collect data on our classrooms. Sometimes we know they are coming and they have conferences with us after the observation. Other times, the drop-in is a surprise. The instructional coaches told me that they had never seen a teacher so relaxed during my early observations. Of course, I do get nervous, but I just think back to how you observed our teaching and I feel like a pro!
Natural history lessons
The only downside I have experienced so far really started this week. Apparently this time of year is grasshopper season in Arizona. When I go to school in the morning, the parking lot is absolutely covered with them! With every step I take from the car to my building, they scatter away. I suppose I can't complain too much though if my biggest problem is too many bugs!
I am so excited about how things have been going so far, and I wanted to let you know that I am constantly reminded of what an amazing job you did to help prepare us to become teachers. THANK YOU!!!!!
Nicole Pajer graduated in spring 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. She completed the Praxis II Principles of Learning and Teaching: 7-12 and Family and Consumer Sciences Content Exam and they were accepted for reciprocal licensure in Arizona.
While in her program at Ohio State, Pajer received an Eithel Bray Rose Scholarship, a Nadine Foster and Merrell Quentin Elder Scholarship, and an Ohio State Trustee's Scholarship.
View other letters from our alumni.
Send us a letter! We welcome news from our alumni. Feel free to update us on your latest work, both professional and personal. Send letters to Sean Thompson, Director of Alumni Relations, College of Education and Human Ecology, 185 Arps Hall, 1945 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43210.
© 2009 The Ohio State University - College of Education and Human Ecology. All Rights Reserved.
If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact the webmaster.