{"id":13871,"date":"2025-11-18T11:20:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=13871"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:46:36","slug":"building-the-teachers-of-tomorrow-inside-the-spapsd-and-uwsp-collaborative-p-e-teacher-practicum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2025\/11\/18\/building-the-teachers-of-tomorrow-inside-the-spapsd-and-uwsp-collaborative-p-e-teacher-practicum\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the Teachers of Tomorrow: Inside The SPAPSD and UWSP Collaborative P.E. Teacher Practicum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Stevens Point Area Public School District (SPAPSD) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uwsp.edu\/education\">School of Education<\/a> team up to shape the future of physical education. Together, they provide essential practicum experience for future educators, training over 30 physical education degree students each semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A practicum is a period of hands-on training where students apply the knowledge and skills learned in their academic courses to real-world settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This immersive experience is invaluable for future educators. \u201cWe get to come and actually have the experience teaching before we get into our own classroom,\u201d said Danika Lindgren, a UWSP student spending part of her practicum experience in Rachael Graves\u2019s class at McKinley Elementary School. \u201cIt helps us build our tool boxes with different teaching strategies and different methods that work in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\ud83e\udd1d Building the Teachers of Tomorrow: Inside The SPAPSD and UWSP Collaborative P.E. Teacher Practicum\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c4jZ19OztfM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learning Beyond the Classroom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The UWSP Office of Field Experience matches students with SPAPSD teachers. University students turn in a lesson plan draft to their professor who grades it and annotates it, ensuring the lesson is developmentally appropriate for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The practicum benefits everyone involved. \u201cIt reminds me to try to freshen things up,\u201d said SPASH P.E. teacher Ryan Marnocha who graduated from UWSP\u2019s physical education program and went through the same practicum he is now a mentor in. \u201cFor students, it\u2019s an awesome opportunity to see the educational experience playing out. They get to see somebody going through the education program, have a new face in class, and work with different people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience gives future teachers skills impossible to learn from a textbook. \u201cSomething I learned from this is not every student is the same,\u201d said Trevor Metzler, UWSP practicum student in Ms. Graves\u2019s class. \u201cOur goal as P.E. teachers is to make it engaging, make it more than sports, make it memories, and make good experiences for all students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dedicated Mentors Make a Difference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>SPAPSD teachers, many of whom are UWSP alumni themselves, step up to take on the extra responsibility of training future teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rachael Graves, a UWSP alumna and McKinley Elementary P.E. teacher, is one of those dedicated mentors. \u201cPhysical education is a very hands-on, learn-by-doing field,\u201d said Ms. Graves. \u201cAnd this practicum is an opportunity to \u2018do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The preparation pays off. UWSP graduates are often well-prepared to start their careers, with some even earning the title of \u201cfavorite teacher.\u201d \u201cMr. Marnocha is definitely my favorite gym teacher,\u201d said Lauren, a SPASH senior. \u201cI\u2019m really glad to have someone that can teach me to get better at the things I\u2019ve always wanted to learn, like climbing. He\u2019s a positive person that shows up in gym class every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Season of Gratitude<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The practicum wouldn\u2019t be possible without the dedicated teachers who welcome university students into their classrooms semester after semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to thank Ms. Graves for letting us come and teach in her classroom because she absolutely doesn\u2019t have to let us do that,\u201d said Danika.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is really awesome that we get to come in here and be guided by Ms. Graves because she went through the same exact thing we did,\u201d said Trevor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI appreciate Ms. Graves&#8217;s feedback every time,\u201d said UWSP student Sam Graff. \u201cEverything she says is helpful and reflective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.E. isn\u2019t the only education degree where a practicum is required. SPAPSD special education, social studies, and math teachers are also often called on to help UWSP students fulfill their practicum requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo gallery:\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fon.pointschools.net%2F4p9Ybj4&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cedonohoo%40uwsp.edu%7Cd650607522fd43581ab508de26bcc49d%7C209c4baddf14417287df060f84f01a11%7C0%7C0%7C638990789694413583%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=IaECfSC8ZE67i1pWt0BbZ%2BQvjvkquC6TD0jz7GKtB3Q%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/on.pointschools.net\/4p9Ybj4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pointschools.net\/post-details\/~board\/around-our-district-landing-page-feature\/post\/building-the-teachers-of-tomorrow-inside-the-spapsd-and-uwsp-collaborative-pe-teacher-practicum\">Story, video and photos courtesy of Stevens Point Area <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pointschools.net\/post-details\/~board\/around-our-district-landing-page-feature\/post\/building-the-teachers-of-tomorrow-inside-the-spapsd-and-uwsp-collaborative-pe-teacher-practicum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Public<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pointschools.net\/post-details\/~board\/around-our-district-landing-page-feature\/post\/building-the-teachers-of-tomorrow-inside-the-spapsd-and-uwsp-collaborative-pe-teacher-practicum\"> School District <\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Stevens Point Area Public School District (SPAPSD) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) School of Education team up to shape the future of physical education. Together, they provide essential practicum experience for future educators, training over 30 physical education degree students each semester. A practicum is a period of hands-on training where students [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,12,19],"tags":[127,342,343,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13871"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13877,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871\/revisions\/13877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}