Teaching Not Just for New Grads
By ELISABETH HULETTE Staff Writer
Last year Dan Kassel, 32, was an attorney for the Baltimore City Police Department, but this fall, he’ll be a 10th-grade biology teacher at Annapolis High School.
“I always thought about teaching,” he said. “I felt like it’s a profession where you really, truly can make a difference.”
While the typical new teacher comes to Anne Arundel schools fresh out of college, some of this year’s recruits reflect a growing effort by the schools to hire career changers. Faced with a national teacher shortage, schools everywhere are looking for recruits – county schools hire hundreds each year – in increasingly nontraditional places.
This year’s career changers coming to county schools include lawyers, scientists and housewives. Many said they are looking to try something different and take on a more rewarding career, and the schools are offering more programs to get them the classes and certification they need to teach.
Take Louise Mathis, a Scotland native who came to the U.S. with her husband, a Naval officer. Now 36 years old, she’s making the switch to teaching after a career in government civilian service followed by several years at home with her two children. This fall she’ll be a special-education teacher at Folger McKinsey Elementary School.
“I have wanted to be a teacher for a long, long time, but it’s very hard for a military spouse to have a career,” she said. “We’re now at the end of my husband’s career. He’s retiring, and it’s my time to pursue what I want to do.”
Ms. Mathis is working to become certified to teach through the Resident Teacher Certification program, which the county school system began offering to special-education teachers in 2004. Recruits begin teaching while taking classes at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland that are mostly paid for by the school system. It takes two years to become certified, and then they’re contracted to work for an additional two years.
“It’s kind of like growing your own people,” said Colleen Wilson, who serves as a liaison for the program between the school system and the college.
About 64 special-education teachers have been recruited through the program.
About two years ago a similar certification program was opened through Anne Arundel Community College for people who want to teach middle and high school in critical shortage areas like English, math, science and foreign languages. So far it has recruited about 29 teachers. And this fall, the schools are rolling out Troops to Teachers, a program that will help them recruit military personnel into teaching.
Sometimes idealistic career changers hit a wall of reality when they get into the classroom, said Colleen Eisenbeiser, director of the community college’s TEACH Institute. A lot of people think they can teach, but they’re not necessarily prepared for how difficult it can be.
“It isn’t for everybody,” she said. “It’s good to find out before they’re in there with students, totally alone.”
That’s why she recommends substitute teaching as a way to feel out the profession before joining a certification program. It’s also why such programs screen candidates – they have to have a college degree and meet a grade-point average requirement – and then provide coaching and mentoring while they get up to speed, Ms. Eisenbeiser said.
That support is crucial, said Tim Mennuti, president of the local teachers’ union. It can make or break a new teacher’s experience, and schools have to be careful not to assume that just because career changers are older, they’re automatically prepared to be in the classroom, he said.
Howaida Gill, 50, isn’t worried. A former computer programmer, she has been substitute teaching for about three years and said after seeing the tricks students pull on substitutes, she’s ready.
“If you can handle that, you can handle anything else,” she said.
She’ll teach math at Crofton Middle School this year.
Nicole Deaner, who has been out of college for 11 years and worked at Sylvan Learning Center for the past seven, said she feels prepared. She said she fell in love with teaching while working the business side of Sylvan, and next week will start with nutrition classes at Meade High School.
“I’m just excited,” she said. {Corrections:} {Status:}
SOME CAREER CHANGERS AMONG THIS YEAR’S NEW TEACHER RECRUITS
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