Our Chicago Internship Program in the Press: Josh LeGreve in the Herald Times Reporter
Out of His Comfort Zone
TR native gets taste of big city life by student teaching in Chicago
By Cindy Hodgson • Herald Times Reporter • March 2, 2010
Josh LeGreve, back right, long-term substitute Spanish teacher in the Mishicot School District, helps students set up their personal accounts on the Edmodo Web site so they can converse with Justin Gerlach's English students in Argentina. LeGreve is filling in for Gerlach, who took a leave of absence from teaching in Mishicot to teach English to Spanish-speaking students in Argentina. He is helping, from left, sophomores Jacob LeFleur, Nathan Krcma and Andrew Schwerma. In the background is senior Kiyanna Faulks. (Sue Pischke/HTR)
MISHICOT — When it came time to do his student teaching, Two Rivers native Josh LeGreve decided not to go the usual route.
LeGreve, 23, said most of his fellow students at Ripon College choose to student teach at a nearby school, such as in Ripon, Oshkosh or Fond du Lac.
“I wanted to move out of my comfort zone,” he said. “I wanted to push myself as a teacher.”
LeGreve decided to do his student teaching in Chicago through a partnership Ripon College has with the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture.
After graduating first in his class at Two Rivers High School in 2005, LeGreve went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and physics with a minor in secondary education, graduating in December, he said.
He is working as a long-term substitute for the Mishicot School District this semester, teaching middle school and high school Spanish.
LeGreve said he was one of five students from his college who chose to student teach in Chicago last semester.
Student teachers have to be approved by the center and by the Chicago Public Schools, he said. The center then matches them with a school and with a mentor teacher.
LeGreve was assigned to Kenwood Academy High School, which he said is “a very academically rigorous school on the south side.” He said it’s in the middle of the poverty spectrum.
Kenwood Academy is a seventh- through 12th-grade school with 1,800 students — twice the size of his college, LeGreve said.
The seventh- and eighth-grade portion is a magnet school for academically motivated students who come from a broad geographical area. The ninth- through 12th-grade portion is a typical neighborhood high school, although students who have attended junior high there can continue.
LeGreve needed a student teaching experience that included Spanish and physics, both in middle school and high school.
“Somehow they found it all in one school,” he said.
The big-city culture was something he hadn’t experienced before. Even the semester he spent in Spain was in a small town.
“I was small town boy through and through,” he said.
LeGreve said he believes without the Chicago experience he wouldn’t be as confident, flexible and quick-thinking in the classroom as he is now.
For one thing, there wasn’t as much technology to rely on, so he had to be more resourceful.
In addition, his students came from a different background than he was used to, which also stretched him.
“It really pushed me to get to know my students, to get to know what motivates them, and to get to know
what would keep their attention,” he said.
He learned, for instance, he had to be more direct in telling the students what to do, and that “for some of these kids, school is not their priority.” They may have other issues, like needing to help support their family financially.
Students at Kenwood had to pass through metal detectors to enter the school, and teachers and students had to wear photo ID badges. The students’ ID even had their schedule printed on the back, he said.
But despite the differences, “no matter where you are, the core necessities that kids need are still the same,” he said.
Specifically, they need to feel accepted and safe and like they’ve achieved something, LeGreve said.
LeGreve didn’t visit other schools during his semester of student teaching, but he had that opportunity in May when he participated in Ripon College’s “Maymester,” which is a short extra term at the end of second semester.
Because he knew he would be student teaching in Chicago in the fall, he participated in a weeklong Chicago excursion through the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture. He said he visited 10 or 12 schools as he learned how to integrate art into the classroom.
Prior to that, his only time in Chicago had been a trip to the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum with his dad when he was in sixth grade, he said.
At the start of the fall semester, the student teachers moved in 10 days before classes began and had nine days of activities to help them acclimate to their new city, LeGreve said.
They learned how to use public transportation and how to carry themselves with confidence. They also went on architectural tours and to plays and music festivals.
“They took us to both extremes,” he said about the socioeconomic differences in the city.
LeGreve said the experience clarified something for him.
“Before I did the program, I had no clue where I wanted to teach,” he said. Now “I feel like I can teach anywhere and be happy. I would love to go back to Chicago, but I’m not pigeonholing myself into that.”
He said he is applying for positions throughout Chicago and also in Wisconsin.