Students Guaranteed Teaching Jobs
By Courtney Cairns Pastor, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
May 19–FOREST HILLS — Kimberly Duink won’t graduate from high school until Wednesday, but she already has a job waiting when she completes college.
All she has to do in the meantime is keep her grades up, graduate from college and return to Hillsborough County.
Duink and four other seniors from Chamberlain High School signed contracts on Monday guaranteeing them teaching jobs in Hillsborough public schools once they get four-year college degrees. The students spent three years in Chamberlain’s teacher education program and planned to continue studying education at various colleges.
“I always wanted to be a teacher,” said 18-year-old Tequella Butler. “I don’t think I’m going to change my mind.”
Other high schools offer teacher training programs, but Chamberlain is the only one to offer job security. Fourteen students signed teaching contracts last year, the first time Chamberlain offered them.
“It was kind of reassuring that I already knew what I was going to do,” said Courtney Holder, a Chamberlain senior who finished enough courses to sign the contract as a junior. “I like the Tampa Bay area. I definitely know that I want to come home.”
Holder, 18, will major in education at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Although it will be a good experience for her to attend school out of town, she said she wants to return home for her job.
The high school’s teacher education program combines hands-on experience with educational research and techniques. Program director Tony Vincenti brought in the school’s reading coach, Amanda Woehrle, to teach his students reading strategies they could use when working with others. He also matched up students with Chamberlain teachers and area schools for classroom time.
Giving the teens time to practice teaching skills is crucial, he said. A coach could take a child to a basketball game, Vincenti said, and tell him the rules and how to play. But it’s not the same as playing.
“He’s not going to know how to play until you put the ball in his hands,” Vincenti said.
Duink, 18, worked in a third-grade classroom at Forest Hills Elementary for a few hours three times a week for most of the school year. She helped the teacher with paperwork and read to the children.
“It was a good experience,” she said. “Some of them really looked up to me.”
She plans to attend Hillsborough Community College and Florida State University and return to Hillsborough as an elementary teacher. She also hopes to substitute in the district while she takes her college courses.
Quincenia Bell, who supervises the district’s teacher recruitment office, passed out the contracts to the Chamberlain seniors. She told them to sign where it said “teacher” and that once they got their degrees, they could fill out applications and she would assign them to schools.
“When you bring this back,” she said, giving them a copy of the contract, “then we’ll talk.”
LOCAL GRADUATIONS
Almost 2,800 seniors from area public schools will become high school graduates next week. Here are the dates, times and locations of those graduations.
Tuesday: Alonso, noon, University of South Florida Sun Dome; Gaither, 4 p.m., USF Sun Dome.
Wednesday: Chamberlain, 3 p.m., USF Sun Dome.
Thursday: Leto, 3 p.m., Florida State Fairgrounds; Sickles, 7 p.m., USF Sun Dome.
Friday: Freedom, 8 p.m., USF Sun Dome.
Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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