Noyce Scholar Profile
Deanne Pierce
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Human Biology
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Earth/Space Science, Biology and Chemistry, grades 6 - 12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Fifth year or post-baccalaureate Noyce scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (act! Program)
Current academic or teaching status:
Currently not employed in a teaching position.
School and school district:
Currently not employed in a teaching position
Background:
I obtained my bachelors degree in Human Biology, and then returned to college after over a decade in the work force by entering the act! Program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh to obtain my teaching license. I completed the program and obtained my license in June 2010.
Why do you want to teach:
I want to teach foremost because I am passionate about helping others to learn. I believe that sharing knowledge in a way that teaches people to think critically is an important element in empowering them to be their best.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
During my student teaching, I had a student in one of my classes who always seemed to be mentally somewhere other than in class. I felt like this student was never paying attention to anything I was going over and often seemed to be deliberately distracting. Additionally, the student never took any of the handouts or turned in any assignments. I worked with my cooperating teaching to try to come up with something I could do to get this student to participate. We agreed the best thing to do was to continue to try to engage the student everyday–give the student the handouts, expect homework to be completed, call on them during class, etc. One day the class was taking a quiz on the skeletal system. We had been working every day up to the quiz with a full-size human skeletal model to study the bones and really having fun with it. When I handed out the quiz to everyone, I did not expect anything different from the “non-participating student.” When it came time to grade the quiz, however, I found that this student had actually taken the quiz and turned it in! It was not the best grade in the class, but the student had participated. This was a great experience for me from which I learned that I should never forget how important it is to continue to teach and interact with every student, even when they do not seem to care if I do.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
The Noyce program stipend provided me with the financial support that I needed to re-enter college and earn my teaching license. Without the Noyce program, I would not have been able to reach my goal of becoming a licensed science teacher.
