City Educators Magazine -- Spring 2017

Nashville’s Leading Teacher Lifestyle Magazine

City Educators TDOE

Recommends

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Ways to Improve

The New Teacher Pipeline

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Fantastic Fundraising Ideas

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Digital Age

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Freed-Hardeman University Prepares Teachers for

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Presented by Advantage Screen Printing & Marketing

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City Educators Editorial Submission For editorial consideration, please visit cityeducators.com/editorial-submission

Feature

Spring 2017

4 Cumberland Plateau

11 New Teacher Pipeline

The home of Tennessee The TDOE announces 8 ways Tech’s College of Education. to help improve teacher staffing

6 Four Fundraising Ideas

Freed-Hardeman University is preparing teachers for the digital age!

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12 Erica Battle

Discover fun ways to raise funds for your school

Read about Erica’s story and get inspired to innovate!

10 Milken Award

14 Belmont Degree Offerings

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Read about Katelyn Baker, a Advance your career with a Hamilton County teacher degree that fits your goals and who won a $25,000 award. your schedule.

Advertising Inquiries For advertising opportunities, please visit cityeducators.com/advertise or contact (615) 832-5388 michael@michaeldavidmedia.com Contact Information Published by Michael David Media P.O. Box 331395 | Nashville, TN 37203 Tel. (615) 832-5388 | Fax (615) 832-1040 www.cityeducators.com info@cityeducators.com

CITY EDUCATORS is published quarterly (fall, winter, spring, and summer) by Michael David Media, Dr. Michael Thompson, Owner. Post Office Box 331395, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, (615) 832-5388.

DISTRIBUTION: Free subscription to qualified recipients. See Website for additional distribution information. All rights are strictly reserved, and reproduction in whole or in part is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from the publisher. CITY EDUCATORS is funded privately and is not affiliated with--nor does it necessarily reflect the opinions of--the local school district, education associations, its advertisers, or any other entity. CITY EDUCATORS is printed in the USA. Web address: http://www.michaeldavidmedia.com. Copyright © 2017 Michael David Media.

CITY EDUCATORS MAGAZINE

Founder/Publisher Dr. Michael Thompson

Spring 2017

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The Cumberland Plateau:

Home to Tennessee Tech's College of Education NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHUCK SUTHERLAND

The Cookeville-Putnam County region has the distinction of being the largest micropolitan area in Tennessee. In this community surrounded by rich culture and breathtaking natural spaces, people visit and return to stay.

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day trip from anywhere in the state is reasonable considering the centralized location and regional hub that is Cookeville.

For over 100 years, teacher training has been a cornerstone of the university. Historically, the College of Education has maintained the honor of being one of the largest, most successful units on campus.

Here are a few of the most popular spots to visit in the area: Ÿ Burgess Falls State Park has

multiple waterfalls on a 1.5 mile round-trip loop following the Falling Water River. A winding pathway leads into the gorge, with scenic views along the steep foot trail. The 136-foot waterfall is the grand finale. Ÿ Cummins Falls State Park is a recent addition to the state park system, but has been a favorite swimming hole for locals for over 100 years. Voted the 6th best swimming hole in the nation by Reader's Choice Magazine, you'll want to bring a towel and spend the day relaxing in the cool waters. Ÿ One of the newest state parks in the region, Window Cliff natural area, is opening to the public in April 2017.

The combination of a large waterfall, swimming area, and natural bridge give the unique name to four miles of hiking trails. Ÿ The Tennessee Central Heritage Rail Trail runs through the heart of Cookeville. Connecting Cookeville to Monterey, the 19-mile track runs parallel to the historic railroad that was founded in 1884.

The open space for bikers and hikers adds miles each year, and brings the community together as it winds across Tennessee Tech's campus into town.

Students who graduate from programs in the College of Education often describe Tennessee Tech faculty and staff as family. The university has strong ties to the community and this shines through in those relationships fostered with students as they progress through their academic endeavors.

The College of Education at Tennessee Tech offers a variety of innovative on-campus, online, and hybrid degree options. With more than 30 degree programs from which to choose and four levels of degree options—bachelor's, master's, specialist, and doctoral—students can easily identify opportunities that best meet their needs. The College of Education offers postbaccalaureate programs for initial licensure as well as add-on endorsements (ESL and special e d u c a t i o n comprehensive are just two examples) for in-

Proudly serving the Upper Cumberland, Tennessee Tech is just as much a part of the community as the outdoor lifestyle for residents in and around Putnam County. Students and faculty enjoy the close proximity to lakes, state parks, mountains and rivers that surround the campus, which is centrally located among three of Tennessee's largest cities.

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service teachers in addition to the traditional undergraduate licensure program.

The College has a longstanding record of cutting-edg e, technology-focused programs including the Learning Resource Center, which offers more technology for student use than the university library.

The most recent addition to the College's technological repertoire is the Vision Research Center. Students explore immersive virtual reality in education and its impact on teaching and learning. These innovative practices are then shared in P12 school classrooms.

TTU offers STEM education opportunities, working closely with math, science, and engineering departments as well as the Millard Oakley STEM Center. Regular collaboration on grants and projects with faculty in the STEM content areas helps students stay abreast of research on curriculum and instruction in high need areas.

In addition to on-campus programs, the College offers the elementary education 2+2 program at eight community college campuses across middle and east Tennessee. Candidates complete two years at their local community college campus then seamlessly transition into TTU's upperdivision Teacher Education Prog ram on that same community college campus to finish their last two years of the bachelor's degree. Fulltime TTU faculty members are housed at the eight campuses, and advisors, the Office of Teacher Education, and other TTU staff work closely with the off-campus cohorts to see them through to graduation and licensure.

Celebrating over 100 years of learning, innovation, and service, educator preparation at TTU fosters educational excellence for the Cumberland Plateau and beyond. Through an invaluable network of partnerships, the College of Education values and encourages a unique and rigorous experience for all learners.

The College of Education has built a strong network for its teacher candidates, offering a variety of clinically rich partnerships with P-12 schools. Partnering with over 50 school districts across the state—more than any other Te n n e s s e e e d u c a t o r p r e p a r a t i o n provider—TTU teacher candidates select their own district placements and build relationships during their year-long residency that often lead to their first teaching job.

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Fundraising Ideas

Fundraising can take the “fun� out of many things, and just the mention of it can cause our anxiety level to raise! #callthepto, #nomoneyavailable #idonthavethetime What if ? What if it didn't have to be that way? What if it was a simple process? What if it made money? What if it was fun? And, what if somebody would help you through all the steps! #wakeupIamdreaming

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he fact is fundraising has become a part of the normal classroom activities. Whether we like them or not, they are an unavoidable necessity to fund some of the needed projects schools want to do throughout the year. When considering a fundraiser, there are four primary things to look for: Ease of implementation, time required, likelihood of student and family participation, and potential profit.

Below, you will find a few ideas that have been very successful at all grade levels, using screenprinted or embroidered garments (tshirts and hoodies).

(1) General spirit wear or an event spirit

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wear. This can be as simple or expanded as you want. Advantage Screen Printing offers full in-house graphics, so you never must worry about coming up with artwork or ideas. You can either present a design or get the students involved in designing and or choosing a design. Post a picture of it and set a deadline for orders to be turned in with payment and that's it. The majority of all decorated short sleeve shirts will cost between $5 and $7; and sell for $12$15. Depending on the class or school size will determine how many shirts get sold, but there is no upfront cost and no remaining inventory. You can see that with just 100 shirts sold, you can raise $500 to $800 quickly and very easily. Of course, if you add a second item like a sweatshirt, the amount goes up quickly. You've provided something the students and parents will get excited about, they can really use, and they will need to buy anyway. You're offering them something at a very reasonable cost for what they're getting and the profit is great.

(2) Bookstores. This requires a little more planning but Advantage has several formats that can be modified to fit your needs. Basically, you need an area and time to have your store open.

Sometimes this is something the PTO can help schedule and man.

C u r r e n t l y, s e v e r a l schools have established bookstores and sell a variety of spirit wear t h r o u g h o u t t h e y e a r.

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Advantage helps manage inventory levels and help with design options and needs.

(3) Contest! Depending on the school grade levels, grade levels can compete against grade levels or homeroom against homeroom or design against design. The basic idea is to get everyone involved in the process. The contest can be fine-tuned to fit your needs, big or small.

(4) Awards. The reason many “selling� programs don't work, is because only the few students at the very top ever get anything back. We have found that if you give more, you get more! Here is how one program worked.

Elementary school, walk/run-athon.

Students go out and get pledges based on how many laps they might complete. Typically the students have no incentive to get pledges so they might get their parents and that's it. Here's how ours works. Level #1, Go get $10 worth of pledges and earn a free t-shirt!

Level #2, go get $40 worth of pledges and get the free

t-shirt and a free sweatshirt! Level #3, get $75 worth of pledges and get both the t-shirt and the sweatshirt, along with gym bag, backpack, sweat pants, etc, etc. We can create this with as many levels as you want and with whatever prizes you want. The idea is that there are reasonable and achievable goals that keep the students interested because they are being rewarded for raising the money.

These four fundraising ideas are brought to you by Advantage Screen Printing. They are just four of many ideas that they have had great success with over the years. If you would like to go with these or other ideas they have, they can provide further details and help you at every turn to make sure your fundraiser is a success.

They would love the opportunity to discuss tips and ideas for having a successful Fun-raiser for your school or class.

Please contact John at John@AdvantageTee.com.

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Freed-Hardeman University Prepares Teachers for

Digital Age The advent of the digital age is changing the classroom. The most people-oriented of careers is rapidly going high tech. Flipped classrooms, mobile learning, digital textbooks, social media, remote learning and gamification are transforming the traditional role of teachers.

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eacher and Freed-Hardeman University (FHU) graduate student Leah Shull said, “Technology has changed everything about education, from the assignments students complete to the tools they use to complete them. Gone are the days when a teacher could stand at the front of the room lecturing while students dutifully took notes.” Since teachers are preparing their students for a role in the technological world, they must know how to integrate technology into the classroom, according to Shull.

Freed-Hardeman University's Master of Education in instructional technology prepares licensed teachers and educational leaders as well as technology coaches and

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directors to use effectively all the high tech tools at their disposal. The 31-credit hour program is available online and can be finished in only 14 months. Some students may be able to finish even more quickly, according to Dr. Monte Tatom, director of the program. Those with prior learning experience may substitute it for up to five of the courses in the instructional technology core.

FHU's online programs, including the master's in instructional technology, provide greater access to affordable advanced degrees for nontraditional and diverse populations located well beyond the university's usual area and sectors. “Our online programs are built on a digital learning framework designed for working professionals from a variety of career paths,” Dr. C.J. Vires, FHU vice president for academics, said. “We've found this framework increases student satisfaction, student success and timely completion of degrees.”

The M.Ed. in instructional technology is not tied to some other master's degree. In many other programs, the study of technology is a portion of a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. This is not the case at FHU where the degree itself is in instructional technology.

Kristy Sherrod completed Advanced Technology for Educators while working toward a specialist degree at

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from the instructional technology core with a six-hour culminating integrative capstone project for the 31 credit hours needed for the degree. Students may qualify to submit Prior Learning Experience (PLE) for five of the courses in the instructional technology core.

FHU. She considers it “one of the most helpful and informative courses” she took.

“Learning the different ways to communicate with the school, community and other educators is something I have continued to use in my career,” she said. As computer testing becomes more and more prominent, Sherrod points to the need for students and educators to be more knowledgeable in technology. She is so interested in the use of technology in schools she is now considering pursuing an Ed.D. in the area.

FHU's M.Ed. in technology utilizes the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) Student, Teacher, Administrator, and Coaches Standards associated with visionary leadership and change management. The program is designed to provide workplace instructional technologists with the skills needed to develop up-to-date online systemic professional development and continued learning for the 21st century employee, including the design, development and delivery of face-to-face, hybrid and digital learning environments. “Master's level candidates will utilize their skills to solve real problems in the workplace,” Tatom said.

Graduate education in technology provides additional opportunities in curriculum development and instructional design. Teachers will learn to effectively utilize technology as an instructional tool, or they may become a leader in the field and mentor their peers in using technology. Some graduates work in administration as technolog y coordinators, supervisors or specialists. Others work in fields other than education, such as corporate training to improve the skills of company employees.

FHU's M.Ed. in instructional technology includes four hours from the foundations core curriculum and 21 hours

Freed-Hardeman University has been training Tennessee teachers for almost a century. The Tennessee State Board of Education approved it as a teacher-training institute in 1925. The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) first accredited FHU's teacher education program in 1982. The organization, now known as the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), reaffirmed its accreditation in 2013. In addition to the main campus in Henderson, Tennessee, the university has centers in Memphis and Dickson.

Classes for the online, cohort-based M.Ed. in instructional technology at FHU will begin Summer 2017. Additional information, including admission requirements and an application, is available at fhu.edu/GradEducation.

Our Products Will Help You in these Areas Presenting Instructional Content Managing Student Behavior Incorporating Technology Activities and Materials Motivating Students Problem Solving Assessment Your Source for: MOBI Flat-Screen TV ELMO Interactive Clicker WhiteBoard ExamView Interactive MultiLCD Projector Touch Screen

615-255-7959 CITY EDUCATORS MAGAZINE

Spring 2017

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Education News in Tennessee

BY DR. MICHAEL THOMPSON

Awards

Photo credit: Milken Family Foundation. As students and colleagues cheer wildly, third-grade teacher Katelyn Baker walks to the front of the assembly to accept Tennessee's 2016-17 Milken Educator Award. In Baker's classroom, students learn a very important skill: how to critique each other's work.

Baker acts as the facilitator as students share their work in front of the class, then listen as their peers offer both compliments and respectfully deliver suggestions for improvement.

Katelyn Baker, a Hamilton County elementary school teacher, was awarded $25,000 provided by the Milken Family Foundation in a surprise ceremony at Battle Academy.

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he award was presented Friday by Education Commissioner Candice McQueen and Senior Vice President of the Milken Educator Awards, Dr. Jane Foley. Foley, a former recipient of the Milken Award, served as a representative for the Milken Family Foundation at the surprise ceremony in Chattanooga.

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“Early grade educators provide our students a strong foundation from which they can grow into lifelong learners, and Katelyn Baker is working every day to help her students get there,” Commissioner Candice McQueen said. “She is an exceptional educator who has gone above and beyond to support and encourage each student in her classroom, and I am proud to recognize her with this award.”

Baker is known for her ability to provide students options from which they can choose their learning activities and offers multiple assessment

Spring 2017

options to measure a student's understanding. Under her guidance and careful management, students work independently, stay organized and engaged, and self-assess their learning continuously. As a result, Baker's students at all learning levels show consistently high growth.

In Tennessee, 64 educators have been recognized since the program began in the state in 1992. Over the past 24 years that Tennessee has been a part of the program, more than $1.6 million has been awarded to Tennessee educators.

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Eight Recommendations to Strengthen the New Teacher Pipeline Included in State’s Report

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n April, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced her plans to strengthen the new teacher pipeline in key areas through additional state support and focus on partnerships between districts and educator preparation programs (EPP). This new work aims to address two key challenges: shortages of educators to teach in certain subject areas and new teacher quality.

The Tennessee Department of Education released Preparation through Partnership: Strengthening Tennessee's New Teacher Pipeline, a report that calls out the areas of greatest teacher demand – especially English as a second language, world languages, and science – and highlights the variation in effectiveness across our novice teacher workforce. The report notes that districts and schools in different parts of Tennessee face varying challenges, and it proposes developing a collaborative and coherent statewide strategy to strengthen the new teacher pipeline.

“While we do not have a statewide teacher supply issue, we do have specific teacher licensure areas in higher demand in certain regions across the state. We also see variance in the quality of teacher graduates across preparation programs,” said Commissioner McQueen. “As a result, we must continue to improve our systems to ensure that new teachers find their way into the schools and districts that need them most – and that they continue to develop their effectiveness once they get there.”

As part of a collaborative approach to addressing the issues of supply and quality, the department is taking several steps to provide better data to inform decision-making and provide new resources for partnerships and collaboration among state agencies, districts, and EPPs.

Through new annual reports, the department has begun directly providing EPPs disaggregated data related to their program completers. These reports include information about employment and effectiveness once teaching in Tennessee classrooms.

This information will further encourage EPPs to reflect on their individual programs and to better understand how they can support the development of effective novice teachers.

A d d i t i o n a l l y, C o m m i s s i o n e r McQueen announced a $200,000 state investment in innovation grants to incentivize EPPs to design new strategies that will support the development of a diverse educator

ŸDistricts should prioritize de-

termining their hiring needs in advance and share this information with EPP partners.

ŸDistricts and EPPs should use

data from EPP annual reports and human capital reports to jointly develop targeted recruitment strategies.

ŸEPPs need to provide strong job

placement support to candidates.

ŸDistricts must strategically design

“While we do not have a statewide teacher supply issue, we do have specific teacher licensure areas in higher demand in certain regions across the state.”

targeted human capital efforts.

ŸEPPs must continue to improve

their ability to develop and deliver relevant and rigorous coursework.

ŸDistricts and EPPs should col-

laborate closely to ensure high-quality and meaningful clinical experiences for teachers in training.

ŸDistricts should regularly reworkforce, increase production of educators in high-demand licensure areas, and promote collaboration to improve educator preparation in the area of literacy.

In today's report, the department further explores the state's role in educator preparation and provides a series of specific recommendations for districts and EPPs to collaboratively support this work going forward. These next steps build on a growing momentum across the state to continue to improve the new teacher pipeline, from the design and structure of educator preparation programs through the ongoing development of new teachers. Recommendations include:

view the systems they have in place for developing and supporting novice teachers.

ŸEPPs must ensure that they pro-

vide aspiring educators with a strong understanding of statewide instructional initiatives.

The full report is available on the dep a r t m e n t ' s we b s i t e : TN.gov/education. For more information about the department's new teacher pipeline efforts, please contact Amy Wooten, executive director of educator licensure and preparation, at Amy.Wooten@tn.gov.

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Erica Battle

Actively Reading & Engaging

Erica Battle never dreamed that she would find her passion in education. Actually, education found her following an unexpected job loss.

That was 11 years ago in 2006 and fast forward to 2017 she has found her niche in creating resources that solve real world educational needs. Throughout her entire career in education, Erica taught reading as either a teacher, Literacy Coach, or her latest position as a Response to Intervention Learning Coach with a specialty in Literacy Instruction.

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uring her tenure, she saw a continuous decline in student's ability to interact, engage, and comprehend text. Because of that, Erica did what most teachers do which is figure out a way to use sticky flags as a way to get students attention during instruction. She began using the sticky flags as a way for students to interact with text in very specific ways that were relevant for her class and teaching style. She realized that the sticky flags kept even the most uninterested student engaged since Erica could see who was following along with the lesson or not. Erica will tell you this was her go to strategy when she would introduce new text. www.cityeducators.com

When Erica became a Literacy Coach she would create booklets that held sticky flags inside with specific “markers” for specific task. She introduced this strategy to new teachers and veterans alike in an effort to get their students to interact and engage with text. Eventually, with prompting from her husband and mother, Erica hired a graphic artist and turned the strategy into a resource, A.R.E. You Actively Reading and Engaging©.

You? A Guide to Help You Navigate Through the Social and Emotional Issues of Life. Who Are You addresses the five competencies of the Social and Emotional Learning framework with activities and readings that follow the best practice guidelines when addressing the competencies.

Who Are You is being used with Metro Parks during their Summer Enrichment programs and other enrichment programs throughout the city of Nashville.

“This literacy tool can be used when reading a textbook, magazine article, and even a library book.”

This literacy tool can be used with students as early as 2nd grade while proving useful to students in all grade levels as a way to assist them when learning to make personal connections with text, but it also supporting students when they are learning to how to interact with text in ways such as citing evidence and answering text based questions for example. A.R.E. You Actively Reading and Engaging is a literacy tool which has eleven textbased strategies utilizing color-coded sticky flags as a way to teach students to interact with text. Since A.R.E. You Actively Reading and Engaging uses sticky flags as a way to interact with text, this literacy tool can be used when reading a textbook, magazine article, and even a library book.

For more information, please contact Erica at (615) 219-9830 or email erica@battleconsulting.net.

Although Erica has a love for all things literacy, she also saw a need in the area of Social and Emotional Learning. Working in an inner-city school, she noticed that her students did not have life goals and that their role models displayed behaviors and character traits that were less than desirable.

In an effort to get them to self-reflect and think beyond the present, Erica began creating activities that students had to complete as a way to set goals and reflect on their role models and the effect they were playing on the students' lives. After creating a few activities Erica realized she had begun creating what is now her debut book title, Who Are CITY EDUCATORS MAGAZINE

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Belmont University is Cultivating

Leadership at all Levels

BY DR. MICHAEL THOMPSON

If you are looking for a university whose approach to education is preparing people to be advocates for children, families, and for their profession, Belmont University is the place for you.

As I sat down to discuss how their programs could help support current and future educators, I learned about the type of professionals the university produces and about the details of their programs, which fall under one of two categories: Leadership or Education.

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nder the leadership program options, headed by Dr. Alan Coverstone, candidates could choose the Master of Education in Non-Profit Leadership degree. This degree trains people to be non-profit leaders. If the candidate is working at a non-profit organization that is a member of the Center for Nonprofit Management, he or she will receive an automatic 26% discount on tuition!

Belmont University also has available the Master of Education in Organizational Leadership and Communication. Per the Chair of Teacher Education, Dr. Mark Hogan, “This degree trains people working in organizations as leaders, but not necessarily just non-profits.”

Under the Education Program options, Belmont University offers the Master of Education in Teacher Leadership. The

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focus of this master's degree program, specifically, is for the classroom teacher in developing leadership skills and skills in communication. These candidates will likely desire to remain in the classroom as leaders or instructional supervisors, for example. Instead of this being a principal licensure program, it builds stronger instructional leadership skills needed for effective classroom teacher leaders.

Dr. Coverstone says they are, “…very interested in seeing teachers take leadership roles in the school without leaving the classroom because it is such a big jump to have to leave the classroom and go into administration.” Coverstone continued, “So, the idea that we had was, 'Let's keep the teachers in the classroom…because they're doing a great job in there…, but we still need them to lead and we still need them to have the skills and capabilities to be leaders within the building….'”

Also in the Education Program options, Belmont offers a track called Master of Education in Transformative Literacy, which addresses how literacy either empowers or marginalizes people. Candidates completing this degree will be certified as a reading specialist or an English learner (EL) teacher. There is a 9-hour difference in this 30-hour program. Alternatively, a candidate could complete both reading specialist and EL certifications by adding the 9-hours to the program. This program also examines, “…how we look

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at structures and policy,” says Hogan, “and create mechanisms to use literacy as the vehicle for people to empower themselves?”

co-teaching, Monday through Friday and they have evening and weekend classes.

One of the most exciting graduate teacher licensure options includes the Metro Nashville Urban Teacher Residency, which has an emphasis on EL as an add-on endorsement.

Coverstone explains, “We are getting a lot of interest from people who are in para-professional roles or even some people who are going into education as a second career.”

Tuition is 100% covered if they are a military veteran and qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program. According to Hogan, many paraprofessionals have served as veterans but they are not necessarily aware of the Yellow Ribbon Program.

According to a brochure about the program, “The Metro Nashville Urban Teacher Residency at Belmont University is an innovative program developed in partnership with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) that offers unique preparation for teachers serving in Nashville's schools.”

One of the most exciting graduate teacher licensure options includes the Metro Nashville Urban Teacher Residency, which has an emphasis on EL as an addon endorsement.

Teachers want to be better prepared for the classroom and better prepared to meet the needs that present themselves in the classroom. Coverstone describes how the Teacher Residency addresses these teacher desires in two ways: “On the curriculum side, [candidates are] preparing for Issues of race, class, and gender; poverty as trauma; etc. The other way is on the experience and clinical placement side where they spend a year in the classroom, thinking alongside of an experienced teacher and preparing better for that first day as the teacher of record.”

Coverstone said the Teacher Residency is aligned with where the M.A.T. is headed, towards building a degree that focuses on urban education. For this to work, Belmont is partnering with rock star mentor teachers. If a mentor is going to spend an entire year with somebody, the mentor needs to be strong. The candidate needs to be learning good things from the mentor. In fact, Coverstone says, “We think this creates good professional leadership opportunities for teachers who are really great at their craft. Those are the ones we want to identify.”

Paraprofessionals working in schools may also work with Belmont's University College (adult-degree completion program) and receive a reduced tuition as well as the chance to both complete their undergraduate degree and achieve teacher licensure. “It's a great opportunity for those with classroom experience to complete the degree and move into the role of the teacher,” states Hogan.

If you are a business or non-profit professional seeking to increase your leadership skills, you should discover Belmont University's options for leadership programs. If you're an educator seeking additional endorsements, seeking to sharpen your leadership skills, or if you are a current paraprofessional seeking to advocate for students and families as a certified teacher, Belmont University's education programs will prepare you for your next level. Visit Belmont.edu today!

Now Available!

Another very huge benefit of the Teacher Residency Program, Hogan says, is that candidates are considered employees of MNPS during the year-long program. They are already being paid almost the equivalency of a paraprofessional through this partnership agreement with MNPS. At present, the residency timeline includes a selection process that culminates in February. Matches and placements occur between March and May. Then, classes begin in July. They take classes during the day in July. When school starts in August, candidates go to work in an MNPS school and take classes during nights and weekends. That continues for the year. At the end of the year, they will have earned the 30 hours necessary for the master's degree, initial licensure in their area of certification, and priority hiring at MNPS. How about that?

Belmont University offers a traditional Master's of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program, which has two tracks—a yearlong Internship track and a traditional track, which allows candidates to pace their coursework according to their availability. Both tracks lead toward a master's degree and full teacher certification. Hogan says, “We have students who do the M.A.T. traditional track in 18 months, we have students who do it in 2 years, or 3 years. But they can drop in and out of classes, keeping their life/job during the day.” Within the M.A.T. Internship track, the candidates are teaching alongside a teacher,

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Tennessee Tech University is a constituent university of the Tennessee Board of Regents. TTU does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (gender), disability (ability), or age in its programs and activities.

The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Director of Diversity & Legal Affairs, PO Box 5164, Cookeville, TN 38505, 931-372-3016; affirmact@tntech.edu. CED104-PRNT-16