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| California Teacher Corps Monthly
August, 2011
Volume II, Issue 7
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| President's Message | |
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer.
It is an honor for me to be welcoming you back as your new president. I am very excited to be taking on this role and I look forward to getting to know each of you as we work together to ensure that our students have the best and brightest teachers in their classrooms.
I am truly passionate about the work that we all do to recruit and support alternate route teachers and it is clear to me that this pathway provides an opportunity for mature and capable candidates to fulfill their dream to teach.
The California Teacher Corps launched in 2009 and in two short years, we have accomplished so much and yet there is still much more to do ahead. The Teacher Corps is looking forward to another successful year as we continue our pledge to place qualified and committed teachers in our schools that need them the most. We will also maintain the momentum that we have established as we continue to highlight the good work of all alternative certification programs across the state. And lastly, we look forward to providing leadership and technical assistance during our second annual California Teacher Corps conference to be held on February 9 and 10, 2012 in Napa, and throughout the upcoming year.
I look forward to working with all of you to ensure that an alternate route into the teaching profession is available for the right teachers.
Sincerely,
Tania Schalburg-Dykes
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California Teacher Corps in the News
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Recruiting Second-career Professionals and Industry Experts for High-need STEM Teaching Positions
The California Teacher Corps announced in July that over the last two years, alternative certification programs have placed approximately 1,300 math and science teachers in California's high-need public schools.
California is facing a critical shortage of math and science teachers, both in urban communities and the state's more rural districts. At the same time, 75 percent of the 50 fastest growing occupations in California require STEM skills.
To stem this tide, and as part of this announcement, the Teacher Corps highlighted the efforts of our programs to recruit second-career professionals and industry experts directly from the math and science fields - filling California's teaching pipeline with talented individuals.
Teacher Corps STEM initiatives received the support from the National Association for Alternative Certification (NAAC):
"The California Teacher Corps is a model for how states can recruit and prepare highly effective teachers in the STEM fields. We must continue to tap the growing pool of career-changers with postsecondary degrees in mathematics and science to fill these high-need teaching positions, especially as research shows teachers with degrees in science and math are more likely to positively impact student achievement in STEM classes. " - Judy Corcillo, NAAC
Read more about our efforts here.
Read Mother Jones' interview with a California Teacher Corps math teacher in Los Angeles.
Watch the San Francisco's ABC 7 news segment on the need for STEM teachers.
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Latest from the California Teacher Corps
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Celebrating Two Years
This month, the California Teacher Corps celebrates two years! We were founded in 2009 out of a loose affiliate of the state's alternative certification programs, formerly the California Association of Alternative Certification, and set the goal at our inception to place 100,000 highly qualified teachers in California communities by 2020.
With your tireless efforts, the organization is working towards meeting this goal. Over the last two years, we have:
- Recruited and placed 1,300 math and science teachers, second-career professionals and industry experts into teaching positions throughout the state.
- Retrained 1,500 laid-off general education teachers to shift into high-need special education teaching positions, creating a pathway for schools and school districts to keep their highly skilled teachers.
- Met the unique needs of rural school districts by recruiting talented individuals directly from within these rural communities.
- Increased the diversity of the teaching profession in California, with more than 50 percent of teachers placed from Teacher Corps programs in the classroom during the 2009-10 school year under-represented minorities.
- Provided ongoing expertise, especially in the area of special education, to both new and developing alternative certification programs, helping to strengthen and grow programs where they are needed in California.
- Provided training for over 20,000 veteran special education teachers needing additional certification in autism to meet the legislative call for specialized skills in California's public school system.
We want to take a moment and thank our programs, as well as our teachers, for all you have done to meet the needs of your communities. We believe that the right teacher makes all the difference, and our teachers are the right teacher.
Thank you!
Summer Quarterly Report
The Teacher Corps will be releasing the summer edition of its Quarterly Report. The Report will be sent to federal and state lawmakers, including the California Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, California State Assembly and State Senate, as well as California Superintendents and HR Directors, Charter School Directors, Deans of Schools of Education, and lastly, State Superintendent Tom Torlakson and California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Interim Executive Director Beth Graybill.
Please look for it on the Teacher Corps website later this month and share with your programs and colleagues!
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Our Teachers
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Travis Holden
Math Teacher
South Gate Senior High
Los Angeles, CA
Holden is a second-career math teacher at a high-need high school in Los Angeles. After deciding to leave a previous career that included working in a physics laboratory and going on to earn an MBA and work as a small business consultant, Travis entered a Teacher Corps program, CSU Dominguez Hills Transition to Teaching, to earn his teaching credential because he wanted to find passion in his life's work.
By applying his industry knowledge in the classroom, Travis shows his students the real-world application, context and relevancy of math, in order to instill a true understanding and appreciation for the subject.
Six years later, Holden is still teaching high-school math at a high-need high school in Los Angeles.
Hear more directly from Holden by reading his interview with Mother Jones, Quit Your Job and Teach!:
Mother Jones: Why did you decide to leave the science and business worlds to teach?
Travis Holden: I wasn't that person who always knew that they wanted to teach. But as we studied how emerging countries move ahead at the business school, education kept coming up. I'd talk to my wife, who is a teacher, and it sounded like education today was very much the same when I was at school: very procedural, sit down and listen, and that's not what was happening in my science lab where I worked. It was always related to real needs, and we would then apply math to it. There was a lot of collaboration and problem-solving. So, I really wanted to teach science that way. Connect a real-world problem that students can relate to and apply mathematics to solve it.
Read more from Mother Jones' interview with Travis Holden.
The Teacher Corps would like to highlight all the wonderful that have gone through our programs on our website, through the media and to the general public. Please share your teachers' stories with us by emailing information to info@cateachercorps.org.
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Technical Assistance
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It's August and the school year is upon us. Here are a few things we think are helpful in starting a new year out right:
- Put systems in place for success
- Provide clear explanations and expectations
- Communicate frequently with your program's multiple partners
- Provide choices and contextualize professional development for interns and their mentors
- Help interns balance and prioritize the demands of their coursework and the demands at their teaching site
- Make connections and provide relevance to what interns are learning in their courses and learning in the field
- Create a sense of pride and cohesiveness among interns, their site mentors and supervisors
- Tell us what is working in your program at https://www.facebook.com/CATeacherCorps
Submitted by Ruth Beauchamp, San Jose State University, California Teacher Corps Board Member.
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'On Teaching' for our Teachers
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It's Back to School
Starting back to school is a time that is exciting and new. New kids, new challenges and, for some of you, new schools. In honor of that, we wanted to share some ideas for getting the school year off to a good start. As with most things in education, these ideas are not original, but they are successful and we hope that you find them helpful. Please go to the Teacher Corps Facebook page and share other good ideas for back to school activities.
"Just Like Me"
Read a statement about yourself, such as "My favorite color is green." Everyone who also has the favorite color green stands and says "Just like me." Continue to pick students who make a statement about themselves until everyone has had at least one turn. Students should have lots of opportunities to stand and say, "Just like me." Don't forget to join in.
Name Scrabble
Use giant graph paper and fit in each child's name a la Scrabble.
Time Capsules
Make time capsules (a paper towel tube). Stuff it with a self-portrait (or take a quick photo and print out), a writing sample and a writing prompt ("My favorite thing to do is..."). Attach a note that says "Do not open until the last day of school." On the last day, they will have fun looking at their handwriting from the first week of school. This is easily adaptable to all grades.
Blind 20 Questions
Write the name of an animal on a sticker and attach to each child's back. They must then walk around the classroom and ask yes/no questions to find out what their animal is. They cannot ask, "Am I a tiger?" This activity works best for students in upper elementary schools through adults.
Venn Diagrams
Divide students into groups of three or four. Give each group a large sheet of butcher paper and a different color marker for each person. Have them draw a Venn diagram with an oval for each student. The students in each group are to discuss what their similarities and differences are.
After the discussion, they are to fill in the diagram showing their similarities and differences.
If a group has a hard time getting started, give them some guidance by asking questions such as, "What is your favorite music?" "When is your birthday?" "What sports do you like?" or "Where were you born?"
Finally, a good read is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. This is a picture book that provides good opportunities to begin the year right by talking about respecting each other. It is a cute story with an important message.
Submitted by Catherine Kearney, Teachers College of San Joaquin, California Teacher Corps Board Member
The California Teacher Corps is an affiliate of the National Association for AlternativeCertification (NAAC).
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