By Alex Struck–In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Teachers are in charge of preparing future generations to take over our world. The profession does not get the necessary credit it deserves. Despite the lack of recognition, Josh Mohr can’t wait to have a classroom of his own.
Mohr is a 21-year-old senior at Morningside College majoring in elementary education. While he has not always wanted to be a teacher, his mind was made up in his senior year of high school. “I have always been good with kids. Then people started suggesting that I pursue a degree in elementary education. I liked the idea of it, and here I am now.”
Mohr wanted to be a professional athlete growing up, but realized his dreams of making the Major League wouldn’t last. “I realized early in my high school years that I couldn’t make it at the professional level. I then wanted to be involved with athletic training, but my heart ended up telling me teaching.”
Morningside was always a finalist for Mohr to attend, but going for education sealed the deal. With how good of an education program Morningside has, this made the college decision much easier for the Ridgeview graduate.
Josh began taking education courses right away in his first semester. These classes did lead to some doubts. “I never really wanted to switched majors, but I doubted my abilities until I was able to get into an actual classroom.” Coming into the classes as a freshman, Mohr wondered if teaching would get old everyday. These thoughts found him second-guessing his decision.
Once in the classroom, the doubts didn’t instantly go away. “It was all a little overwhelming at first. Everything was so fast paced. I was trying to do a lot in a little amount of time.” However, the more time Mohr was in the classroom, the easier it became. Experience proved to kick the doubts to the curb. The more Josh worked with the students, the more he realized that this is what he is supposed to be doing.
These practicums culminated fall semester when he student taught for Mr. Mason. Scott Mason noticed an eager student in Josh when he entered the classroom. “Josh was energetic and excited to be in the classroom at first. He looked forward to coming to school each day. I know he wanted to be a part of each student’s learning and have responsibilities throughout his student teaching.”
Mr. Mason also saw much improvement over the course of the semester. “Josh improved in his teaching because he was more aware of how the classroom should be managed after watching me and he modeled things that I did well. He also picked up on things himself.” Josh was continuously trying to find ways to improve.
Overall, Mason feels that Josh’s best qualities are having fun with the students and having a good rapport with staff members. Josh is working his way up the teaching ladder.
“I couldn’t have imagined a better cooperating teacher. The way we collaborated and worked with each other made for a very enjoyable and beneficial student teaching experience.” Josh’s love for teaching grew even more during this very busy student teaching placement.
From this student teaching experience, he learned how to put schoolwork first and how to hold himself accountable. This experience was something that he felt made him grow in all areas of life.
While finding success for himself, Josh also made an impact on a fellow student teacher that was in the program at the same time he was. Ashley Buell went to many seminars, school board meetings, and other school related student teaching activities with Josh. She had these words to say about Mr. Mohr, “I loved working with Josh! It was nice collaborating with him. Josh also taught me to just relax and to go with the flow. I am a perfectionist and that can be overwhelming at most times.” Josh provided a helping hand to whoever needed it.
Ashley went on to say, “I was grateful that I had Josh by my side during this experience. Josh shows passion, enthusiasm, and the students absolutely love him!” Miss Buell is certain that Josh will make a great teacher one day.
Josh had some words of advice for future student teachers as well. He said they need to be prepared for how much time goes into it. “You’re busy throughout the entire school day, but you are working before and after school. Be prepared to be tired.”
Mohr went on to say, “Understand that you will need patience. You will have days that you love it and days that will drive you nuts. But usually the days that you love will outweigh the negatives.” He also added how you need to have strong communication skills when entering this profession as well as be organized and have content knowledge.
As for his strongest characteristics, Josh said he has a positive and energetic demeanor that creates a positive learning environment. It gets the students excited about learning. He’s also very hardworking and connects with students well.
Josh isn’t perfect, however, and some challenges came up during his time with Mr. Mason. “Being with 3rd graders was very much like a roller coaster. We would go from awesome to terrible and it was hard to sometimes teach to that. Within five minutes it could go from good to terrible.” Such inconsistency of students can be tough.
Mr. Mohr was able to student teach in the fall and definitely recommends this over student teaching in the spring if one has the choice.
Career goals are what drive Josh to be internally motivated. “I want to be best teacher I can be. I want to have students that enjoyed having me as a teacher and remember things that I taught them for years to come.”
With goals come rewards. Josh noted how seeing the growth and improvement of students is wonderful. Being able to help a struggling student master the content makes the profession extremely worthwhile.
While student teaching was a stepping stone in his life, Josh had other big news in the last couple of months. Mohr proposed to his high school sweet heart over Fall Break. He had this to say about his engagement, “The first big step of the rest of my life. It’s really cool to see my life unfolding the way I always dreamed it would.”
Wrapping things up, Josh had these words to anyone on the fence about entering the teaching profession, “You really have to be sure of it. You have to love it. You don’t do it for the paycheck. There will be highs and lows. But if you truly enjoy it, then it is the most rewarding job you can have.”
Self-motivated, hardworking, goal-driven, and a genuinely great person, Mr. Mohr is exactly what the teaching profession needs. Someone who can connect with students, and who will truly give them what they need: a role model.
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