For the first time, Harding University’s English department is offering a forum for English teacher-licensure students that will provide the opportunity to meet with English teachers from Searcy High School and learn more about the art of teaching. The forum is named the Bobbie Coleman Teaching Forum, in honor of Harding alumna Coleman, who died in 2010.
The forum will take place on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. in Cone Chapel. Although the content will be most directly relevant to students planning to teach English in secondary schools, non-licensure English majors and students licensing to teach in different fields are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be provided, and the style of the forum will be informal.
Five English teachers from Searcy High School, two of whom are Harding alums, will be present, representing instructors of 9th- to 12th-grade English. The topic of the forum will be “The First Day of School.” Discussion will cover many different aspects that need to be considered for a successful first day in the secondary classroom. A question-and-answer session will follow.
“I’m just worried that our teacher-licensure students weren’t getting enough from the department,” said Dr. John Williams, chair of the department of English. “Nowhere does it say that the English department has to teach licensure students how to teach. But still, I thought, why not try something that would give them a little extracurricular experience?”
Williams said another reason for the forum was to honor Bobbie Coleman. Coleman taught English at Searcy High School for 30 years, and she was the only active teacher to be inducted into The Searcy Education Foundation’s Hall of Honor. She was also the recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s School Award for influential educators and the 2004 Arkansas Journalism Teacher of the Year. In 2007 she was named Outstanding Alumna of the College of Arts and Humanities.
Coleman also took over the Teaching Methods course in the spring of 2008 during Dr. Rod Brewer’s leave of absence and was also a guest speaker the same year at an English departmental chapel dealing with faith in the classroom.
Williams said he hopes to be able to continue to offer such forums for licensure students. He said such opportunities would be particularly beneficial to students who could partake for a full four years, each year learning more from experienced teachers. If the forum continues, more opportunities for building relationships exist as well.
“It’s not just what the teachers can say to them,” Williams said. “It’s the people themselves can make an impact on our students.”
