Hosted by Mark Ouchida and Suzanne Spreadbury

CARC Panel: Preparing for a Career in Teaching

In the midst of media attention on school closings and teacher layoffs, nearly 100 Extension School students crowded into the Grossman Common Room on March 11 to learn how to become teachers in Massachusetts. Extension School students love learning and have been so inspired by the their own teachers that they want to give back to the next generation of students--no matter the immediate employment prospects. The panel presentation, Preparing for a Career in Teaching, was in two parts. First, representatives from the Department of Education (DOE) spoke about regulations and incentive programs, and then three practicing teachers shared their insider perspectives on teaching.

Tracy Nash, Educational Specialist for the DOE, opened the panel discussion by summarizing the three stages of Massachusetts licensure: provisional, initial, and professional:

Provisional

In order to obtain the provisional license, one must possess a bachelor's degree, pass the Communication and Literacy Skills Test, and pass the Subject Matter Test for the subject one is planning to teach. The provisional license is valid for five years.

Initial

The requirements for the initial license are the same as the provisional license with the addition of an approved program for education (for example, BA in elementary education). The initial license also is valid for five years.

Professional

The requirements for professional licensure are the same as the initial license with the addition of a master's degree in education or in one's field of interest. The professional license is valid for five calendar years. In order to maintain this level of licensure, the teacher also must participate in professional development courses.

Teachers with the highest certification will have an easier time finding teaching positions and commanding higher salaries. Nash also informed the participants that the DOE is in the process of reviewing the three stages and that changes will be announced on June 6, 2003. He shared that one of the changes will be the renaming of the provisional license to the preliminary license. Other changes will involve new guidelines for assessing teacher qualifications for the initial license and the types of master's degrees that qualify for professional licensure.

Orin Gutlerner, Director of Alternative Teacher Recruitment and Training Programs, DOE

One such initiative is the Massachusetts Institute of New Teachers (MINT) Program. The MINT Program is an intensive, summer, teacher-training program that prepares professionals to enter the classroom right away. After the seven-week training, MINT teachers start teaching with the support of an expert teacher. Gutlerner described it as a "boot camp," designed to provide prospective teachers with student teaching experience, supervision, mentoring, and on-going coursework during the first academic year of teaching. Gutlerner emphasized that "the program is not for everyone." Although the training provides MINT teachers with "essential tools and opportunities to work with young people, in the fall the classroom doors will close behind you and it will be your classroom." He recommends that prior to applying to the MINT program, one should engage in preliminary activities such as observing classes, substitute teaching, volunteering as a teacher's aide or as a tutor in an afterschool program, and talking to teachers, to determine one's readiness for the challenges of teaching. A candidate in the MINT program would apply to one of the participating districts: Chelsea, Lawrence, Brockton, Worcester, or Chicopee. If the candidate is accepted, the district will offer:

1. a guaranteed teaching position in the fall,
2. a full-tuition scholarship from the Department of Education for the summer training and
3. a $2,000 stipend to cover expenses during the summer training period.

Also, students will be allowed to transfer some credits from the MINT Program toward a master's degree in education. Students who are accepted into the program are expected to make a three-year commitment to the district to which they have applied.

Other initiatives sponsored by the DOE include the following:

• Attracting Excellence to Teaching Program designed to help teachers pay back college loans,
• Massachusetts Signing Bonus established to attract qualified individuals to teach in the Massachusetts public school system, and
• Teacher Career Advancement Grant that provides teachers with credit vouchers for free tuition for up to 9 credits of coursework through Massachusetts state schools.

Both presenters encouraged students to go to the DOE website for more detailed information about licensure and incentive programs.

In the second half of the panel presentation, three practicing teachers, Alisa Conner, MDiv '02, Bill Perry, ALB '02, and Martin Fuller, ALB '03 shared their classroom experiences.

Alisa Conner, a Spanish teacher at Brookline High School, enjoys the creative aspects of teaching, such as designing classroom activities. She is committed to developing her teacher-student relationships and helping students improve their listening and communication skills. She admits that her work requires a great deal of energy and often leaves her exhausted at the end of the day, but for her teaching is a calling . She encouraged everyone to think of their careers in Frederick Buechner's words--as a "vocation, where your heart's desire and the world's needs meet." She advised new teachers to "be patient with yourself." "The fear of having an empty toolbox" when first beginning to teach is something she understands, but she assured the participants that teachers acquire the necessary tools over time. She recommended that new teachers read the following texts to help get through their first year of teaching: The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong, and The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier and Robert Gower.

Bill Perry was a permanent substitute teacher during the fall 2002 semester at Milford High School, where he taught economics, American government, and world history to sophomores and seniors. Perry worked in business for many years and started his own company, but he decided, like Conner, that teaching was his calling. He came to the Extension School to earn his ALB in history, in order to teach history to middle and high school students. He is currently a substitute teacher for six local communities and has become aware of the difficult and disappointing fact that some schools provide better teaching conditions than others schools. He candidly admitted that there were times when he "did not have a clue" about certain classroom procedures such as distributing report cards and sending misbehaving students to the principal's office. His advice to prospective teachers is to "have more material than you need, for nothing is more deadly than having five minutes left in the class without anything to do." Also, he said that one must expect to both fail and succeed. He concluded by saying that because he always loved the teaching aspects of his previous careers, he knew that teaching full time would be the perfect job. (See Perry's essay "It's Not Easy Out There, but if You Love It It's Worth It" for more realistic words of wisdom.)

Martin Fuller, Boston Community Leadership Academy

Martin Fuller is currently a permanent substitute teacher at the Boston Community Leadership Academy (formerly Boston High School), a pilot school, where he teaches physics to ninth and tenth graders. Martin always wanted to be a teacher, but other opportunities and responsibilities intervened. At this stage in his life, he has a reached a "tipping point" and felt very compelled to get started on fulfilling his lifelong dream. He said that he began by tutoring math to local high school students. He said that he is particularly gratified to help a student who is at first confused and distressed about a mathematical concept and then reaches an "A-ha" moment. Like Perry, Fuller applied to be a substitute teacher by contacting the schools and school departments directly. Using vacation time, he arranged a teaching "test drive" of being a substitute teacher for three weeks. His passion for teaching became apparent very quickly and he was soon offered a permanent substitute teaching position. He recounted one of his classroom experiences in which he was substituting for American Colonial History . The students were studying the biography of Olaudah Equiano, a slave in the colonies in the eighteenth century. Coincidentally, Fuller himself was taking a colonial history course at the Extension School with Professor Robert Allison, who had written an introductory essay for the book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano . He then pulled this book out of his backpack, pointed to Professor Allison's picture and said, "this is my teacher." The room became absolutely quiet and for the remainder of the class, the students listened with rapt attention. Fuller told the panel participants, "It doesn't get better than that."

Although Conner, Perry, and Fuller are in the early stages of their teaching careers, all three share a passionate desire to help students in their learning process. It is quite evident that they love teaching and truly enjoy the challenges and rewards of this important vocation. All of them encouraged the attendees to join this rewarding profession, but they all cautioned that before going ahead and enrolling in a master's of education program that they try teaching by becoming tutors, substitute teachers, or classroom volunteers. See other articles in this newsletter for details about some of these teaching "test drives."