teacher training – Teachers of Tomorrow

Teacher Residencies – are they the answer

astratton — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:16:48 +0000

When teacher shortages hit, people push for teacher residencies as the best alternative teacher preparation. The programs pair a new teacher to work along side a veteran for the full year. The new teachers complete coursework at the same time they are learning and being mentored by the veteran teacher.

It would seem to be a much preferred method of getting new teachers the experience they need to improve performance. But is it practical and do they work?

We are always asked for data about our alternative teacher certification so I went to the National Center for Teacher Residencies and only found survey data and it looks almost exactly like ours. 87% of our principals say our teachers are prepared and 89% of teacher residency principals say they are more prepared (they beat this there on wording). They have 38% teachers of color, we have 46%. They only have 37% of their teachers changing careers, we have almost all of ours and they have 500 total teachers trained and we have over 36,000.

And that is the difference. NCES reports that the US has about 3.55 million teachers of 15% move or leave the profession with 8% completely leaving. That’s 284,000 new teachers needed at a minimum. If you have to pay each $36,000 plus benefits that is $12.3 Billion per year just to fill the 8%. Since they are not teaching their own classroom, you still have to hire teachers to fill the empty classrooms. So that is a true cost and there is no money to provide for that kind of solution. And that doesn’t take into account the costs of running the program – that is just to pay the new teacher for a year.

The point here is that there is no one solution for a problem of this size. You have to have all programs working together to find and train the best talent to ensure our students have the best possible teacher in the classroom.

The post Teacher Residencies – are they the answer appeared first on Teachers of Tomorrow.

Utah Alternative Teacher Certification

astratton — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 17:15:53 +0000

Last month, the Utah State School Board approved a new alternative teaching certification route that allowed people with a degree to begin teaching quickly. Their training and support would come after they were in the classroom. That route would be approved in August unless something happened.

It looks like that something is going to happen. Opponents of the new route have pushed for a hearing in August. And it looks like that hearing will happen before August 4th.

We will keep an eye on this and work to find a way to help career changers move into the classroom while at the same time making sure they are prepared with the skills necessary to be a successful teacher in the first year.

The post Utah Alternative Teacher Certification appeared first on Teachers of Tomorrow.

Achievement Takes Talent & Skill

astratton — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:05:37 +0000

We take time out of our normal blogging about the teacher shortage to provide an interesting look at a basic premise of author Angela Duckworth of the Grit movement with a focus on achievement. CNBC had an interesting article about her equation for success that looks at talent, skill and achievement. And because it uses the commutative property, we just had to share.

It goes like this:

Talent x Effort = Skill
Skill x Effort = Achievement
therefore (Talent x Effort ) x Effort = Achievement

So very true.

The post Achievement Takes Talent & Skill appeared first on Teachers of Tomorrow.

Our “Teachers Teach”

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 02:30:43 +0000

There are testimonials and then there are letters like the one below that we received today. Our team has done amazing things to help our schools and districts get the talent they need to positively impact student achievement. In short – our “teachers teach”.

Texas Teachers has become the “go-to” team for solving school district recruitment challenges. And we provide 95% of the teachers for this school. Amazing.

Enjoy and please share the link:

Dear Stephanie:

As always, I would like to personally thank you for the ongoing help that you have provided to our charter school district. As of today, 95% of our new K-5th grade campus (Texas Serenity Academy-GANO) has been staffed with teachers from your program. You took the time and provided a tailored candidate list to me and you were patient in working with our Human Resources Department. The reason I included Mr. Reaser in this email distribution is because I am not sure that he has been made aware of how important you have been to the success and growth of our charter school district. Because of Texas Teachers and with your networking support here is what we have recently accomplished with the help of the teachers that you referred to us:

TEA awarded us with our 10-year renewal
98% of our 8th graders passed their STAAR Math Test and 100% of our 8th graders passed their STAAR Reading Test and this is without retakes
97% of our 5th graders passed their STAAR Math and Reading tests
TEA approved for our school district to open our second campus in August 2016 which is a K-5th Grade campus
We have consistently made FIRST RATING and MET THE STATE STANDARD

In short, your teachers teach! You guys are awesome. I just felt Mr. Reaser as the President of your company should be made aware of how good of job that you do. You take the time and go far and above whatever your job description states.

Thank you.

Larry Jenkins

Asst. Superintendent/Human Resources Director

Texas Serenity Academy Charter Schools

The post Our “Teachers Teach” appeared first on Teachers of Tomorrow.