Featured Photo by Shamani Salahuddin
Story by Shamani Salahuddin
The MTeach program held its annual semester “Nerd Night” on Monday, where the evening’s activity was to create custom wooden door signs for aspiring educators’ classrooms. The event took place at 5:30 p.m. in the MTeach room of the E.W. Midgett Building.
The aroma of pizza and the display of chips and cookies welcomed students as they entered Room 101. MTeach provided all the supplies students needed to personalize their door signs including paint, brushes, stencils and paint pens to bring their vision to life.
Each sign reflected the student’s personality and the subject they hoped to teach or were already teaching.
Some students picked stencil designs with encouraging messages for learning. Misty Woitke chose the phrase “Maslow before Blooming.” The MTeach Student Society Vice President Alex Spence chose a groovy text with a positive message for her future classroom.
This special first-semester event was a close-knit meeting with friends chatting about how classes were going. Even some alumni took part and shared their experiences of being first-time teachers.
“Every semester, we have Nerd Night to come together as a community to catch up with each other,” said Oscar Meza-Abraca, the MTeach Student Society president.
Alumna Rosina Andrews participated in Nerd Night to create a sign for her classroom at Central Magnet School, where she teaches math. Andrews painted the stencil design “Teacher of Tiny Humans” and utilized paint pens to draw mathematic symbols around the phrase.
Kailee Scott, an animal science major, supported the craft event despite no longer participating in the MTeach program. She painted a clever phrase that applied to her major.
Described as a “safe space,” the students in the MTeach program are bonded in the rewarding challenge of secondary teaching. Meza-Abraca said the goal of having events like Nerd Night is to build community within their program.
“We do things that get us looking forward to being a teacher and to just stay positive,” Spence said.
As new students enter the program, there are no planned future events, but you do not have to be an MTeach student to attend. To stay up to date with MTeach events, follow MTeach on Instagram.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Destiny Mizell, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, or follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines or on X at @MTSUSidelines.
