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For more information about Bill Ducett's work, review his profile.

Bill Ducett: The excitement of turning students into teachers

By Matt Kurnick

"I couldn't conceive my life without having been involved with this place, and working here with all the fine colleagues and students I've had." — Bill Ducett, Instructional Assistant Professor, Curriculum & Instruction

(June 16, 2009) Bill Ducett, instructional assistant professor in the College of Education at Illinois State University, gets to teach students at a very pivotal time in their education and in their lives.

Ducett teaches several courses in the Curriculum and Instruction department at Illinois State but few are as exciting as C&I 212, Issues in Secondary Education. This is an introductory class where Ducett introduces students to "the concepts of becoming a secondary level teacher" looking at "contemporary issues involved in schooling, curriculum, and politics."

During his class, Ducett draws on his own extensive experience to provide authentic examples for students. This is also the time where students get their first taste of teaching through observations. This is an all important stage of a student's educational development in which they often come to an impasse.

"It's very important, sort of a jumping off point," Ducett described. "It gives students a chance to assess, 'Is this what I want to do?' To see what being a teacher is all about, seeing a range of issues that teachers face."

This is an exciting and important time for his students. Ducett gets a thrill too, from providing anecdotes from his career as a teacher in an elementary school and high schools, an administrator in a high school and a parochial school and as a non-tenure track professor to help inform students who have an important decision to make.

"It's exciting. I hope my students understand the calling that teaching is," Ducett said. "It's not just a job, it's a calling, it's a vocation. I want to make sure students understand the complexities of how schools work. It's a 24/7kind of thing. I try to excite my kids and get them excited about becoming a teacher. I want them to understand how energizing teaching is, how no two days are ever the same, how many opportunities they have as a teacher to impact the lives of kids."

Ever semester, whether it is before spring break or fall break, Ducett always has someone make the fateful decision that teaching is not their calling. "I feel sad about that, but on the same hand, it's great because why should they invest a lot of time and effort into this, and when they go to student teach they find out, 'Oh boy, this is not for me.'"

Ducett also helps students once they enter the classroom as a teacher. Each semester in addition teaching them a C&I class, he supervises a handful of student interns in the Professional Development School (PDS) program, a full-year student teaching program. Ducett specifically supervises at Woodruff High School in Peoria, Ill. Ducett has seen the Woodruff PDS program through from the planning stages to when ISU sent its first students there in 2006.

"Once they walk in that door, they're not a student anymore. They're a pre-service teacher, or a future teacher. I want them to always look at a classroom from the perspective of a teacher. When we flip the sides of the desk, I think it makes our students aware of how much work and effort they have to put in to really know how to be an effective teacher," Ducett said of the transition from student to teacher.

Ducett's other classes help students with lesson planning and classroom management. Ducett uses a very meticulous and proven method for lesson planning, a method his students don't always find appealing. But to see the value in his style of lesson planning is easy, especially once his students step in front of a classroom full of kids.

"As a student you know when a teacher isn't quite ready, or fumbling around. This is an opportunity for kids to get themselves in trouble. The heart and soul of a well-managed classroom is a well-thought-out lesson plan. You get students engaged, materials prepared, you've thought things out, the chances of things happening and blowing up are a lot less."

After Ducett arms his students with the ability to precisely plan lessons and manage their classroom, they are able to maximize their PDS experiences. One group in particular turned their PDS experience into a presentation for the Connections Conference, a conference that provides professional development opportunities for educators throughout the state.

A group of about five students turned the content literacy portion of their PDS class into a successful presentation that caught the attention of several administrators throughout the state of Illinois. One student in particular was eventually able to parlay an introduction at the conference into a job.

"Wow, I saw that unfold before my eyes," Ducett recalled. "The students that go through the PDS go through the same things that first year teachers do. They come out almost as second year teachers, they're much more capable. Those students get calls from administrators from around the country looking at those guys as really good candidates."

With the exception of the two years he spent as a principal of a parochial school, Ducett has been affiliated with Illinois State for the last 25 years. He earned his masters' degree from ISU and he has siblings that attended ISU. Despite earning his bachelor's degree at a rival university, he has come to appreciate his time at Illinois State and the relationships he has cultivated with the people around him.

"I couldn't conceive my life without having been involved with this place, working here with all the fine colleagues and students I've had. Illinois State is what makes this community so energized. The community owes a lot to this place. Even though I went to Bradley as an undergrad, I'm pretty much a Redbird fan all the way. I can't imagine not teaching or being here for some reason. I know I have to go sometime, but my career at this point has been really exciting."