Johnson launching teaching career with support, experience gained at Northwest

Abbie Johnson has long considered teaching kindergarten her “dream job.”

“I absolutely love kids,” she said. “I have since I was a baby myself. I love kids, and I want what’s best for them, and I know that they’re capable. I grew up in a very loving home and I’m very grateful for that, and I want them to have that experience as well.”

This fall, Johnson will fulfill that dream by returning to her hometown of Adrian, Missouri, where she will begin her career as a kindergarten teacher. She graduated from Northwest in the spring with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, earning magna cum laude honors.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I feel very supported by my teachers (at Northwest). I know I can always come back and ask them for help, but I also think they’ve prepared me very well.”

Johnson attended Northwest on the recommendation of an alumnus. The reputation of Northwest’s School of Education also helped.

It is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award presented by the American Association of State College and Universities, and Northwest is just the third institution in the nation to receive the award two times since its inception in 2002.

The School of Education operates two laboratory centers on the Northwest campus to facilitate hands-on training for education candidates, staffed by master teachers – the Horace Mann Laboratory School, which serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade, and the Phyllis and Richard Leet Center for Children and Families, which comprises the early childhood center and a preschool. In 2021, the International Association of Laboratory Schools recognized Horace Mann and the Leet Center as an outstanding laboratory school.

“I looked into the ed program, and it really felt like home,” Johnson said. “I decided that I wanted to be at the best school of ed.”

Looking back on her four-year journey at Northwest, Johnson says she would not change her decision. She is grateful for the profession-based experience Northwest offers and the faculty support she received.

“That was the most beneficial thing,” she said. “They really just meet you where you’re at, and they have high expectations of you, but they’re going to help you meet them.”

Johnson gained experience by participating in practicums in the preschool at the Leet Center and in the kindergarten and third and fourth grade classrooms at Horace Mann. She taught reading to kindergarten students and math to third and fourth graders. She completed her student teaching experience at an elementary school in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Outside of her coursework and practicum teaching, Johnson was active with the Navigators campus ministry program at Northwest as well as the Student Missouri State Teachers Association, for which she served as president.

Additionally, she had the opportunity to attend a National Association for the Education of Young Children conference in Nashville, where she presented with Northwest faculty Dr. Rebecca Moore and Dr. Sandra Seipel about incorporating STEM experiences in infant and and early childhood development. She also enjoyed collaborating and networking with other teachers.  

“Being able to go and present was amazing,” she said. “I learned so much from other teachers and Dr. Seipel and Dr. Moore. It was really an amazing experience of just being able to get out of my comfort zone.

Johnson concluded, “Kids are so much more capable than we let them be. They are amazing and they can learn so much.”