Sarah is past the excitement of the first day of second grade at her Lutheran elementary school and, now, two weeks later, has almost settled into the classroom routine.

But on Monday there is a new person sitting in the back of Sarah’s classroom. It’s a young woman, dressed very professionally. The teacher says that the new person is a student teacher from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minn. Sarah wonders what that means.

The new person just sits quietly in the back of class for the first morning, but in the afternoon, she stands in the front of the class and presents the devotion. As the days go on, the student teacher presents some of the lessons. Sarah learns that Martin Luther College, or MLC, is the WELS College of Ministry.

The student teacher smiles at Sarah and helps her with the more difficult words in the reading book. She also seems to be able to explain math in a way that Sarah understands. But what Sarah likes most is that the student teacher seems excited to tell her that Jesus loves her and died so that she could go to heaven.

All over the synod, student teachers from MLC are beginning their fall semester field work. In early childhood centers, elementary schools, and high schools, the teachers are learning from veteran teachers and traveling supervisors from the college. For 10 weeks they put their classroom training into practice in real-life situations.

When the student teachers return to MLC for their remaining months of classes, everything they have seen and done makes their remaining classes seem that much more important and applicable to real life teaching ministry.

Sarah likes her student teacher from MLC, and saves the picture of the student teacher and her second grade class. As she looks at that picture, Sarah wonders if maybe, someday, when she is in college, she might be able to be one of those student teachers herself.