Spotlight
Summer 2009 Back to Spotlight home page
The B.E.S.T. Career Transformation
The El Dorado second-graders
watched the visitors and
photographer for several minutes
before becoming engrossed in a
story about “Swimmy the Fish.”
Their teacher, Rusty Williams (BSE
2006), is asking them if Swimmy
reminds them of anything, and
hands go up in the air.
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Attuned to
the story, the students have no idea
that Williams dropped another
career to realize her dream of
teaching – a journey made possible
through Emporia State University’s
B.E.S.T. progam, “Butler/Emporia
Students to Teachers.”
Toward the end of the school
year in late April, there she was,
treasuring her students – and
naturally, questioning them. Hands
were raised, and the kids had
answers.
“I see the same hands every
time,” Williams said. “I want to see
some different ones.”
One student compares the story
to Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo. “That’s good, that’s a 
text-to-text
connection,” Williams said. She
pushes him to explain – not just
because of the setting, but in the
similarities of the plots – and the
students explore it further.
Williams changes the subject. “What makes Swimmy a good
leader?” The discussion that follows
is remarkably familiar. Students
offer examples from the text; they
discuss, perhaps a little shy to differ
but open to the idea that any one
question has several answers. “Does
anyone want to add to that? Say
something different?”
The teacher pulls little lessons
from the story. “Do you hear the
descriptive words? Can you picture
the images without seeing them? This is how your
writing should sound, with the descriptive words.”
Clustered in groups in their band shirts and plaid skirts or hoodies and jeans, it’s not difficult to imagine these children in an ESU classroom in a few years. They are the future, and Williams loves that potential. “I love this age,” said Williams. “They’re still so young and innocent and fun, but they’re at that point in their lives when they’re a little more independent and you can give them more responsibility.”
The route Williams took, to teach at the very
elementary school where her husband spent his early
days, actually began with education in mind. Right out
of high school, her plans to teach were discouraged by
other teachers who were near retirement. “‘Teaching
has changed so much,’” Williams remembered hearing. “‘Pick a different career.’ I was talked out of it very easily.
I should not have been.”
Due to family connections in the field, Williams
became a dental hygienist for 12 years. But despite
her professional training and reasonable income, she
knew all along that the work wasn’t as fulfilling as her
first dream. “I came home one day, crying from work,
and I said, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’” But to become a
teacher, Williams knew she was no longer a high-school
graduate; she was married, with a son who would soon
be going into grade school himself by the time she
finished her new degree. Commuting or moving was out
of the question. Fortunately, the Butler campus offers
the B.E.S.T. program right in her backyard. “It was
basically the only way I could do it,” said Williams. “All
my coursework was on the Butler campus.”
Selecting ESU and Butler was fairly simple. Williams’
sister, a special education teacher, had earned two
degrees, one from ESU and one from another state
institution – and said there was no comparison. Williams
had the same impression when comparing schools.
At ESU, “the people were so easy to work with and so
willing – you could tell they wanted you to be a part of
their program,” Williams said.
More than just curriculum, the reputation of the
Teachers College was also on the Butler campus. The
college was named several years ago as one of the
nation’s best models for
teacher preparation by
the former education
dean at Columbia
University, in an
extensive nationwide
study of teachers
colleges. “We take our faculty
down to them, so the
quality of that degree
is the same as it is
on campus,” said Lori Mann, an assistant professor in
elementary teacher education who is ESU’s liaison to
the Butler campus. “From a faculty standpoint, we’re
very collaborative.” Mann explained that nontraditional
students often show a special kind of dedication – fitting
classes around their working and social lives – and bring
a special kind of experience to the classroom. “They are
not like first-year teachers,” she said. “They enter as
seasoned professionals.”
Williams was also eager to learn. The mentoring she
received while student-teaching, from Adam Olson,
now a fifth-grade teacher in El Dorado – taught her the
skills of classroom management and confidence. “He
taught me to just roll with the punches,” she said. “I felt
completely prepared for anything the classroom could
throw at me.” Williams knew that the safe, predictable
environment of dental hygiene did not suit her; teaching,
though, fits her well. “I like not knowing what’s going to
happen next,” she said. “With these kids, things change
minute by minute. You just have to roll with it.” Unlike the teachers who dissuaded her from the field, Williams
has embraced that unpredictability. “I know in five years,
teaching will be completely different.”
As the students put away the reading books and set up manila-folder guards to keep their eyes from diverting during test time, she hovers between the islands of desks and guides students. “I can tell you what a word means, I can read a word for you. I’m not going to tell you how to do it,” said Williams, but adds with a smile, “I can give you hints.”
Williams is every bit the confident presence in the
classroom she described in Olson, and the students
work without signs of frustration. Williams says that
her experience has allowed her to gradually teach less
by-the-book, allowing her to improvise when necessary.
Of course, every change to the curriculum brings new
challenges – she planned to spend the summer planning
for a new reading series. Organizational changes keep
teachers like Williams on their feet as well. “Next year,
we’re going to have eight more students. I don’t know
where we’re going to put them,” Williams says. “But we’ll
manage.”
Williams has had BEST student teachers drop in
to practice individual lessons, but Williams hasn’t yet
taken on an official mentor role. Still, she looks forward
to the challenge, and hopes to have a student teacher
soon. Chances are she won’t try to dissuade that student
from the field, not like what happened to her. The BEST
program put her back on the right track, and she hasn’t
forgotten it.
“I went back to what I thought was my first love – and
I love it,” Williams said.
- by Dirk Mcbratney (BA 2007, MA 2009)
- Photos by James Garvey
Last Updated July 29, 2009