Fox 31 - So You Still Want to be a Teacher?

News Article

By: Eli Stokols

Hard to believe that just three days after Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed slashing public education funding by $500 a student next year we would find our cameras inside a Denver classroom trained on teachers so gushingly over the moon about their profession.

But there we were Friday, inside Montclair Elementary, where not one but two teachers floated around a class of 31 students before heading into the library to tell Sen. Michael Bennet, whose office organized the roundtable and invited the media to cover it, how they found their way into teaching.

"I was in a second grade classroom with as an aide to disabled students and it was amazing," said Becky Thomas, who'd finished college with thoughts of going into sports medicine before finding a passion for teaching. "I came home every day just feeling so fulfilled."

Thomas is the "lead" teacher in tandem with Cindi Van, her "resident" teacher, a former tax auditor who is now reinventing herself as an educator.

Van is one of 30 residents teaching alongside mentoring teachers in Denver this year under the Denver Resident Teacher Program, first established by none other than Bennet, who served as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools prior to his January 2009 appointment to the U.S. Senate.

Earlier this week, Bennet's pilot program appeared as the Presidential Teaching Corps, a near- carbon copy, in President Obama's budget.

Hence, Friday's photo-op.

"This program was designed for people who have not spent their whole life thinking abotu being a teacher and may not have every credential that's required," Bennet told us.
"I can't think of a better investment we can make than investing in the next genration of teachers."

We asked Bennet about the impact of impending cuts to education funding at the federal and state levels, and whether that's going to deter would-be teachers from entering the profession.
He said it might, but described it, somewhat optimistically perhaps, as a "short-term issue.
"But a long-term issue is that almost a million of the nearly four million teachers in this country are going to retire in the next 10 years; and if we don't have a theory for how we're going to replace them, we're going to have a lot of empty classrooms," Bennet said.

With the rising need for new teachers, programs that make it easier for a wide range of professionals to take an alternate route into teaching will be essential, Bennet said.
"There are alternate routes into teaching now," Bennet continued. "And I can't think of a better investment we can make than investing in the next generation of teachers."
Van told Bennet she likely wouldn't have switched careers if not for the DTR program.

"Had it not been for the alternative route, I probably wouldn't be here," she said.
As she continues teaching, Van will pursue a Master's degree, which will be subsidized by the district.

Montclair's principal, Shannon Hagerman, believes it's a good investment.
"With this program, you end up with a different caliber of teaching candidate," Hagerman said. "Their experiences lend themselves nicely to the classroom, and they find out immediately, in their first year, what it's like to teach for a full year.
"You have to want to do this work and want to do it badly," Hagerman said. "And most of these teachers find out they do."
Thomas, who's now mentoring Van, is passionate about the program and her profession, even though it can be difficult.
"This is most definitely the place for me," she said. "I love every day being in this school with these children.
"The effect you have is incredible."

Source