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Schools

Three-week crash course brings new teachers to Pinellas

Some traditionally trained educators say the program can't possibly prepare people for the classroom.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 7, 2005

	[Times photo: James Borchuck]
	Judy Clayton teaches language arts at Tyrone Middle on the first day of school Wednesday. Clayton is part of an 18-month experiment called TeachPinellas, which will attempt to select, recruit and train about 150 teachers.

Judy Clayton's introduction to teaching came Wednesday, her first day back in middle school in nearly 25 years, when she asked her eighth-grade students to share their nicknames.

One boy in baggy jeans told her his: Bug Boy.

Clayton had been on her feet for more than six hours by then, and had used nearly all of the skills she had learned in a three-week crash course for new teachers.

She flashed back to her earlier life, the one she abandoned in the spring when she submitted an online application to the Pinellas County School District for a quick-track teacher certification program.

After spending more than a decade working with at-risk youths, the 37-year-old New Yorker was now facing a class of teenagers at Tyrone Middle School.

Clayton was among 38 teachers who took their place in front of Pinellas classrooms last week as part of an 18-month experiment called TeachPinellas, a program that will attempt to select, recruit and train about 150 teachers.

None of the new teachers have college degrees in education, as most teachers must. Instead, until this summer, they were graphic designers, managing editors and forensic autopsy technicians.

The program asks the question: Can they learn in three weeks how to be a good teacher? Maria Canales, a consultant for the New Teacher Project, the nonprofit company that provides training for TeachPinellas, believes they can. She saw the program work in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, where she was a teacher, and has come here to direct the Pinellas County version.

Hillsborough County first tested the theory eight years ago when it became the state's first district to offer an alternative teacher certification program. In its first year, it turned 74 professionals into teachers.

"It's an idea that will not go away," said Cathy Jones, a supervisor in the district's office of training and staff development.

She knows not every teacher likes it.

"We still have to deal with some attitude among traditionally trained educators who ask, "Who are these people who think they can teach school,' " Jones said.

In Pinellas, this is how the TeachPinellas program worked:

In the spring, candidates began the process by completing online applications. A fraction of them were invited to a daylong interview with school administrators. About half were selected to attend a three-week training program that taught instruction and classroom discipline.

"One or two decided this wasn't for them," Canales said. "That happens."

If all goes well, they'll be certified as teachers by the end of the school year.

Jeffrey Pincus realizes that if he were teaching standup comedy, his new job would be a lot easier. As a high school chemistry instructor at Seminole High, he knows he'll have to be creative if he wants to keep his students' attention.

"It's not going to be a barrel of laughs for 85 minutes," he said. "But I have to design it so there will be some things that will be enjoyable."

Pincus, 54, spent 16 years in private practice as a dentist before deciding to become a teacher. Before that, he was a professor and department chair at Indian River Community College, where he served as assistant dean of health sciences.

He says he probably will be working for less than 20 percent of his previous income.

"It would be foolish for me to say I have no fears, but what I've got is a strong background," he said. "I really feel that everything is in place for me to be successful."

Compared with most teachers, who go through four years of college and a one-year internship, teachers who pursue an alternative route cannot possibly enter the classroom ready to teach, some educators argue.

"Alternative certification is like learning to do brain surgery in three weeks," said Katherine C. Boles, a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Boles calls alternative certification a "quick fix," likening it to a stint in the Peace Corps. (In fact, the country's first alternative certification program was modeled on the Peace Corps.)

Critics also say these teachers sorely lack skills to quell unruly student behavior.

St. Petersburg High School principal Julie Janssen, who has hired three such teachers through the district's Transition to Teaching alternative teacher certification program, found them capable of teaching but not as good at managing student discipline.

"One who had been an engineer walked out after a week," Janssen said. "Bless her heart, it was tough for her. She said she just had no idea."

Canales, the TeachPinellas director, acknowledges that the program packs a lot into a short time.

"We're not attempting to say that the candidates learn in three weeks what folks learn who go through a traditional teacher training program," she said.

For years, Robena Richardson thought about becoming a teacher. She never pursued it because of the low pay. Now, she says, she's following her heart.

Richardson, 31, has spent the past seven years as a systems analyst at Time Customer Service in Tampa. She left the corporate world in the spring to prepare for her new life as a math teacher at Azalea Middle School.

The first day of school went okay, but the second day was tough, Richardson said. She asked her mentor, another teacher at her school, to observe her and offer suggestions.

"When we were learning the theory of classroom management over the summer, a lot of it seemed like common sense," she said. "Putting it into practice is much different."

She suspects it will take her a while to get used to the exhaustion she feels at the end of the day, as well as the 45 percent pay cut she took. Still, she doesn't regret her decision.

"I believe if you do something you love, you'll be happier," she said. "Everything will fall into place."

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:29:21]