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| California Teacher Corps Monthly
May, 2011
Volume II, Issue 5
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California Teacher Corps in the News
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Rebuilding California's Thinning Teacher Workforce
California Teacher Corps President Catherine Kearney recently drew attention to an issue that will affect thousands of Californian's over the next ten years - an impending teacher shortage. Systemic layoffs, which total 72,000 California educators over the last three years, are thinning the pipeline of prospective teachers and creating a disincentive for current teachers to remain in the profession. California must act now in order to continue to meet the needs of its students.
Read Catherine's Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee: Viewpoints: California Needs to Recruit and Retain Talented Teachers.
Preparing for Tomorrow's Education Challenges
The California Teacher Corps today announced that it is strengthening its partnerships with California's paraprofessional programs to recruit more than 2,000 talented paraeducators into Teacher Corps programs. This effort is part of the Teacher Corps' mission to ready California for the impending teacher shortage it will experience in the coming years.
Teacher Corps programs will work closely with the Paraprofessional Teacher Training Program and the Transition to Teaching Program to recruit individuals showing exceptional talent and skill for teaching into a Teacher Corps program, putting them on the pathway to teaching.
Read more about our efforts here.
Please send any information you may have about outstanding paraeducators in your program to info@cateachercorps.org.
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| Latest from the California Teacher Corps | |
CSU Fullerton Sixth Annual General Education/Special Education Collaborative:
"Autism, Inclusion and Evidence Based Practices"
Teachers and directors from across the state attended the General Education/Special Education Collaborative: "Autism, Inclusion and Evidence Based Practices," hosted by CSU Fullerton on April 29. Education leaders discussed the issues, difficulties and triumphs related to the transition from school to career for young people with a diagnosis of ASD.
Conference speakers covered all the latest hot-topics in special education, including best practices for adult transition students with autism, how to best utilize evidence-based practices to challenge the quiet learner with ASD and developing and nurturing relationships with ASD students in order to make school days happier for both students and teachers. With the UCLA PEERS Program seen most recently in People, US News & World Report and USA Today, it was exciting to hear from Program Director and Co-Developer Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson about the latest research regarding parent-assisted social skills intervention for teens. Breakout sessions, led by renowned authors Juda Carter and Jennifer McIlwee Myers, provided an opportunity for teachers to gain resources on best parenting practices and ways to teach life skills to students with ASD.
An especially poignant session was a panel of young adults with ASD who discussed the issues, difficulties and triumphs related to the transition from school to career for young people with autism or Asperger's.
If you would like more information about these great presentations, documents are visible online.
In addition, if you are a program director and could not make it to the session with Jan Jones-Wadsworth, Marilynn Fairgood and Nick Pearce regarding the latest news in Education Specialists Intern programs, email Belinda Dunnick Karge, Ph.D. Conference Chair.
Submitted by Belinda Dunnick Karge, Ph.D. Conference Chair, California Teacher Corps Board Member
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Our Teachers
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Diane Thompson
Special Education
Miraloma Elementary School
San Francisco Unified School District
 " Despite all the challenges that come with the job, I get great joy out of making a difference in the lives of so many children and their families. Without the support of an amazing administrator and staff, I would not be able to have as much of an impact in providing quality education and positive experiences in the classroom." Fourth year Special Education teacher at Miraloma Elementary School, Diane Thompson, continues to wake up excited every day to do what she loves and always dreamed of as a child. The first in her family to graduate from college, Thompson's pathway toward teaching began as a paraeducator. After graduating from high school, Thompson worked for Walgreens as a pharmacy technician. Her boss, who thought she would make an excellent teacher, introduced her to a friend who ran a private school that served at-risk students. For six years, Thompson served as a paraeducator, eventually working as a special education paraeducator for San Francisco Unified School District, while finishing her B.A. Fully committed to a career in education, Thompson says "it has taken so many years and a lot of hard work to get to this point and I would not be in the classroom teaching today without the support, encouragement, relationships, and resources that the Paraprofessional Teacher Training Program provided me. It has allowed me to stay strong while motivating me to continue in the field of teaching special needs students." Thompson, who graduated from San Francisco State University's Alternative Certification Program, is an exemplary teacher leader at her elementary school, well loved by students and the community alike. Known for her dedication to equity and access, Thompson is always available to support the recruitment efforts to find prospective educators to teach in our most undeserved communities.
The Teacher Corps would like to highlight all the wonderful teachers that have gone through our programs. Please share your teachers' stories by emailing us at info@cateachercorps.org.
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Technical Assistance
| Working Together with Paraprofessionals in Special Education
One of the most important partnerships in education is the working relationship between the special education teacher and their assigned paraprofessional(s). Paraprofessionals comprise a large portion of the education workforce - about 312,000 across America, according to Carter, O'Rourke, Sisco and Pelsue (2009).
With the changing nature of the field with respect to the increasing challenges with staff relationships, it is critical that special education teachers learn effective ways to supervise and foster what Giangreco (2003) termed an engaged teaching partnership. Paraprofessionals are school employees who work under the supervision of teachers to assist in the development and implementation of teacher-planned instructional programs and to evaluate student performance in relation to the education programs and services provided (Heller &Gerlach, 2003; Pickett, 1999).
Dr. Kent Gerlach, national expert and writer in the area of paraprofessionals, provides these suggestions for teachers as they supervise paraprofessionals:
- Set expectations of the paraprofessional performance and review performance every few months.
- Encourage ethical and professional behavior by modeling appropriate behavior (for example no gossip in teacher lounge).
- Lead and teach by example; write detailed lesson plans for the paraprofessional and show them how to implement the plans.
- Share critical knowledge about students; but do not encourage paraprofessional to speak directly to the parents (this is the teacher's role).
- Take time to determine what special interests, strengths, and training the paraprofessional has that will complement and enhance his/her own skills and improve the delivery of instructional programs to students.
- Meet regularly to create a climate of cooperation, trust, and respect and to maintain open channels of communication
For more information, you can email Dr. Gerlach.
Submitted by Belinda Dunnick Karge, Ph.D. Sp Ed Regional Network Lead and California Teacher Corps Board Member |
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'On Teaching' for Our Teachers
| Recharging Teachers this Summer!
Yes, it is May and hopefully all teachers are feeling appreciated and taking stock of all their accomplishments, successes and student growth.
Here are a few ideas on how to do just that and recharge this summer.
TIME TRAVEL: Take yourself on a journey back to the beginning of the school year. Imagine how your students were both academically and with their behavior. Now, fast forward to present time and relish in how they have grown.
BUILD ON YOUR ASSETS: Take inventory of what worked this year in your classroom. Give yourself some credit by focusing on what you did towards these successes. Spend a lesser amount of time reviewing any challenges. Pick just a few to improve upon and create a plan using your assets to boost you towards your goals.
LOOK INTO SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES: There are many community resources, especially in urban settings in the arts, including music, dance and performing arts, as well as health education. These are topics often overshadowed in our curriculum. Contact these resources and arrange for guest speakers for the year to come. It will build your excitement for the year to come, keep you fresh and your next year's students engaged.
GET AWAY FROM IT ALL: Enjoy your summer; rather it is one month or three. Do something that fills you up, which is different for each of us. Visit new places? Return to the familiar? Whatever it is, take care of you, so that when the new school year comes, you are refreshed and recharged looking forward to another year.
Contributed by Ruth Beauchamp, Director, Bay Area Alternative Certification Programs, Region 3 and California Teacher Corps Board Member
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| President's Message | |
From experience, we know to brace ourselves on May 15th - the day that school districts send out their final layoff notices. Every year, we lose countless talented teachers to layoffs, and once again, put the state at a disadvantage to meet the education challenges we are going to face down the road.
The systemic layoffs diminish an already thinned teacher workforce, while simultaneously creating a disincentive to enter the teaching profession and depleting any infrastructure in place to meet an impending teacher shortage. At the same time, one-third of California's teachers are on track for retirement within ten years and the number of prospective teachers annually enrolling in teacher preparation programs has dropped by 30,000 in the past seven years.
These are unique problems and we must think creatively about how to prepare for the challenges ahead. Today, we announced that our programs are strengthening their partnerships with the state's paraprofessional programs to recruit paraeducators showing exceptional talent and skill for teaching into a Teacher Corps program. This is part of our efforts to help ensure California has a robust pipeline of teachers to meet tomorrow's needs.
I wish everyone all the best. As always, the Teacher Corps is here to support you in any way we can. I hope we can remain positive and focused on our mission of ensuring that the right teacher is in the classroom.
Catherine |
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| | The California Teacher Corps is an affiliate of the National Association for Alternative Certification (NAAC). |
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