Reply to Teacher Resident - no teaching qualifications required?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, I can’t believe they are starting this now. Other counties have had similar programs for years. Those include a month of summer courses and summer school teaching as a sort of student teaching, if I remember correctly. Hiring someone this late is going to be interesting.

On the other hand, I don’t think they have many options and presumably someone who wants to be a teacher long term will be better than a stream of subs. [/quote]

Our district has a program like this and it's rare for these teachers to last the entire school year. We had a teacher quit by mid-September last year. All of this nonsense could be avoided if they paid teachers a lot more and gave them more support. Instead, they will be spending money on people who will quit because they have no clue what they are getting themselves into. I'm a traditionally trained teacher. I completed a yearlong student teaching position and I still didn't feel totally prepared when I got my first class as a teacher. [/quote]

I went through an alternative certification program in another county. I took classes and student taught over the summer and was certified to teach by the fall after I took the Praxis. I had my advanced certificate the following year. Was it easy? Absolutely not. I wanted to quit daily because of the stress of the job. However, the traditionally trained teacher in the classroom next to me felt the same way.

That was 20 years ago. I have mentored 4 other career switchers and all of them are still teaching and doing very well. These programs can work. It requires proper support and a dedicated mentor with extra planning time to take on building up a new teacher from scratch. If FCPS builds a mentoring program that gives extra support to the senior teacher as well (instead of just piling on work for a small stipend), it can absolutely work. [/quote]

Another who did an alternative certification program and still in the classroom. A few in my cohort quit but many are still teaching. Teaching has a high turnover rate regardless. I do not think an education degree is the only way a person can be a successful teacher.  However, the alt cert programs I know start in the spring before, with classes, requirements for praxis, a certain number of college credits in a subject to teach secondary, etc. I had to prepare and teach a lesson as part of my interview. That all doesn’t guarantee success but it is something.

I don’t understand why FCPS wouldn’t have started something similar earlier in the year when they knew there would be a shortage. It seems more like a PR campaign so they can say they don’t have so many subs in the classroom. [/quote]

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