ELIZA GRUBA, a student teacher, sits in a chair in first-grade teacher Jerricka Mabon's classroom in Madison Elementary School. Gruba, who is working under Mabon this semester, will graduate from Dakota State University with a degree in elementary education in December after completing her student teaching placements.
ELIZA GRUBA, a student teacher, sits in a chair in first-grade teacher Jerricka Mabon's classroom in Madison Elementary School. Gruba, who is working under Mabon this semester, will graduate from Dakota State University with a degree in elementary education in December after completing her student teaching placements.
Eliza Gruba loves teaching, but she wasn’t expecting how much she’d love getting to know parents, as well.
Gruba is student-teaching in Jerricka Mabon’s first-grade classroom in Madison Elementary School. She said she loves each new experience her mentor and students give her, but the warm embrace she’s received from parents and the community has encouraged her to be the best teacher possible.
“I know people in Madison are used to student teachers being around since this is so close to the teaching school, so every time I’ve been in a classroom or a meeting with a parent, it’s been very nice. They’ve been upfront and forward about stuff. They treat me like a teacher...I’m not just some stranger in the classroom,” Gruba said. “They’re so embracing of the student teachers, and I love it. They treat you with respect, like you are a teacher; you’re not just a student.”
A Dakota State University student, Gruba is seeking a degree in elementary education, and she’s on track to graduate in December. Gruba’s love of teaching began when she attended school in Sturgis, where she worked as a teacher’s assistant for freshman courses during her senior year.
Gruba also had two teachers that strongly impacted her. After moving to South Dakota in the middle of a school year, Gruba had challenges adjusting. Her middle school history teacher, Kerry Skinner, supported her through the process and acted as a guide. Her high school art teacher, DeVee Dietz, also encouraged her and even let her help during class. Between this experience and her time as a teacher’s assistant, Gruba knew what path she wanted to pursue.
“I just loved seeing that moment where students connect the two thoughts, getting to see that moment of ‘A-ha’!” Gruba said “So, that’s really what pushed me into the education world.”
Gruba has worked at all levels of elementary education except fourth grade. Her favorite groups to work with, however, are first- through third-graders.
“I really love little kids. They can be so sweet and so honest, but they can also be challenging in the sense that they are at a very impressionable age, and so you really have the ability with these young kids to kind of mold them and shape them to be really great human beings,” Gruba said. “And they’re just at that age where they really need that support, so being that adult support for these kids is really fulfilling in my heart.”
Every day, Gruba said, she can go home to her boyfriend and tell him cute stories and about what she learned that day, whether it was from classroom experience or another teacher’s advice. Mabon has been a treasure trove of advice and resources, and Gruba couldn’t be more thankful for the experience, she said.
Madison Elementary’s pod system, where each grade’s classrooms are clustered together and teachers can easily interact with each other, is key to the learning experience, Gruba said.
“It offers more of a collaborative environment,” Gruba said. “I think you can get a lot more out of yourself and others [while working together].”
Gruba said she is fascinated by how different schools are organized and what methods teachers use to educate their students. She said she wants to see other styles, like team teaching, in action. For her, the Madison Central School District is “about perfect” in size, but she’s interested in how schools operate in other states. Once she graduates, she hopes to find a teaching position in a mid-sized school, where teachers are encouraged to work with each other like they are in Madison, in a state like Montana or Colorado.
“Probably the biggest thing, right now, is that [I want to] bring the collaborations I love into the classroom,” Gruba said. “I love when people can share.”
