Students try teacher’s role
Published: February 15, 2006
Allentown School District Superintendent Karen Angello made an appeal not long ago during a commencement address to students who had dreams of becoming teachers.
Please come back, Angello urged a student population of 72 percent minorities about the need for a more diverse teaching and support staff to better reflect the district’s make up.
The plea was heard and there are signs at one school that students are beginning to consider the call.
Not only did the district’s school board adopt a plan last year to increase the diversity of the its work force, but two teachers at Louis E. Dieruff High School also began a local chapter of Future Educators of America, a national organization for people dedicated to careers in education.
The district has a similar well-established program at William Allen High School for students who want to work in careers in health care. Dieruff’s future educators program is now in its second year.
Paid for through a $250,000 Private Industry Council and Career Link grant and administered by Penn State University, the future educators program offers juniors and seniors a 10-week after-school course that gives them a chance to look, from the front of the classroom, at what it takes to be a teacher.
It pays tuition for some courses at Penn State for students to take while still in high school.
”I think it’s going very well. I feel very positive about it,” said Donna Bragg, a family consumer science teacher with 20 years in the profession. Bragg, along with teacher Diane Colom, started the program at Dieruff. ”We kept it small at first, with just juniors and seniors. Now, we’re considering expanding it. We have students wanting to still join.”
The program is mostly designed to nurture students and let them know that it’s possible to become teachers if they remain focused, Bragg said.
It gives them chances to test the waters through student teaching, role-playing and focus groups. The program’s students lead those groups, with other students participating, and work to find ways of changing and improving what happens during a typical school day.
Some of the ideas from those sessions are already being considered, Principal Rosalee Sabo told the group during an impromptu visit to a recent future educators program class.
This year there are about 25 students involved, who mostly signed up through word of mouth. Some signed on for the two Penn State courses in English offered through the program, and others, who didn’t want to take on college-level work just yet, take part in only the workshops and role-playing.
All seemed eager, however, for the chance to have their ideas heard and encouraged, that their unique styles might someday be embraced by the district.
”I went into Sheridan Elementary [to student-teach for a day] and felt right away that this is what I want to do,” said Phillip Abdouche, describing himself as a senior with definite plans to teach in the district after college. ”[The students] really responded well to me. I think this is it for me.”
Deshawn McIntyre is another senior considering a future in teaching. Bragg said with his good grades and successful completion of his first Penn State English course, he is well on his way.
”I started coming to meetings to learn the main aspects of becoming a teacher,” said McIntyre, who is poised and articulate at 18, with a flare for the dramatic, sporting eye makeup and a lip ring.
Also involved in theater, student government and journalism, McIntyre said he is most interested in how teachers can better deal with students and how to make schools better in general.
Concerns about the lack of diversity in the district work force arose from last year’s study which showed the 10-year average of 8 percent minority representation among the teacher and administrator groups. Those groups work directly with a student population of about 54 percent Hispanic, 26.7 percent white, 17 percent black, 1.9 percent Asian, and 0.2 percent American Indian as of 2004-05 school year.
Colom, with the district for seven years, said her role and that of the program, is to give insight into the total scope of education.
”It’s not just the classroom,” Colom said, referring to a host of careers in school administration and support staff that students often don’t realize are open to them.
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