Nick Halverson Email & Phone Number

My education at the University of Northern Iowa has prepared me immensely for my student teaching, as they take the initiative to get us out into great school districts so that we can get our hands on with experience to better my pedagogy. I have been taught how to properly conduct a lesson plan and use it effectively in the classroom setting, and if things don’t go as planned within the classroom I have been prepared well enough to be able to overcome and adapt to any adversity that I may face within the Classroom. I did not get to experience much diversity growing up in my school district, but my schooling has taught me all about the diversity that I will see out in the different classrooms, and I have been lucky enough to experience this throughout my teaching placements. I feel that I am more prepared than ever to make my classroom a welcome space for all students. My level two experience I was placed at Peet Junior High where I have been able to teach a soccer unit where I led the students in understanding the corner kick, goal kick, and positions of the game, and for my second lesson I got to teach Nitro ball which was a very fun experience as we have learned about all of the non traditional games to play with our students. All of the students were engaged and happy to get to play a non traditional game like this. The culture of these two communities however was very different as well as the diversity, both of them were great experiences for myself to be able to experience new cultures that I have not be for and doing so I believe has made me a more understanding and empathetic teacher towards different cultures.Going through High School I always wanted to be a nursing student which I had pursued for my first two years at North Iowa Community College, after realizing that this was not what I want to do for the rest of my life I sat down and really thought about the things that I enjoy in life which were sports, games, kids, coaching, and having fun. My high school PE teacher had a big impact on this decision as we were very close and are still in contact to this day. He had made my PE experience a very enjoyable time as he did not just play the traditional games but he came into our school and introduced us to many new games that we can play for the rest of our lives. I really look up to him and decided that I wanted to attend UNI to become a physical educator. This has been the best decision that I have made as I enjoy every class here at UNI and feel that it has made me grow leaps and bounds as a person and an educator.