California Teacher Corps in the News

Last month, we honored Fresno County math teacher, Baljit Gill, with the First Annual Michael McKibbin Outstanding Educator Award.  

Recently, Gill was featured in the Fresno Bee, as well as invited on Fresno's KYNO radio to talk about the award and share his experiences as a second-career professional transitioning into the classroom through a Teacher Corps Program. 

Read the Fresno Bee's feature on Gill's exceptional service at Caruthers High School:  

Caruthers Classroom Lures Silicon Valley Engineer, Fresno Bee, Monday, February 21, 2011 

Annually, we will honor a distinguished California educator with our Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. The Award is named in honor of Michael McKibbin, who has been an instrumental figure in establishing and supporting alternative certification through more than two decades of working with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.    

Technical Assistance & 'On Teaching' for Our Teachers

• Create resource video clips for use in professional development for staff
• Document teacher performance to improve teaching methods
• Record performances, field trips, presentations, projects, and other school activities
• Encourage students to make their own video documents, expressing their own original ideas to demonstrate their knowledge or to teach others - science experiments, book reports, community projects, etc
• Introduce higher-order logical thinking to all students  

Digital video cameras are small, pocket-sized and durable and record video with a touch of a button.  They hold one to two hours of video, depending on internal memory.   Students in grades two and up can easily use them.  The cameras do not require any special software or cables and work seamlessly with a MAC or PC.  They either have a built-in rechargeable battery or use AAA batteries.     

Announcements

I can hardly believe it is already March. As these months fly by, I am continuously amazed by the work of your programs and the positive momentum we are generating as an organization. From responding to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to our first annual Teacher Corps conference last month, we are uniting in our effort to ensure that California's students have access to the best teachers possible. 

One of our conference speakers, Andy Goodman, taught us the importance of telling our story - the story of our teachers that leave the comfort of their careers to serve their communities in the classroom.  This came to life recently with Baljit Gill, the recipient of our Michael McKibbin Outstanding Educator of the Year Award.  Baljit's personal story of leaving a successful career in software engineering to serve as math teacher in Fresno County resonated with Californians. So much so, in fact, that the Fresno Bee wrote a feature on Baljit, and a Fresno radio station invited Baljit to tell his story of changing careers to become a successful teacher in a high-need public school. This is a great example of what we learned at the conference - how to tell the good stories of our teachers.

While we cannot forget that with layoffs ahead, this month will be a difficult one for our teachers, we need to use this time to continue to build on our momentum and have our story heard.  Reach out to colleagues to share best practices, follow-up with graduates, and most importantly, let's all remain positive and focused on our main mission - to make sure the right teacher is in the classroom.

Catherine