Emily was an urban school district’s dream come true—a smart and talented young professional with a degree in mechanical engineering. After several years in a promising career as an engineer, she felt strongly that she was called to teach, so she left her job and enrolled in an alternative certification program to become a teacher in an urban high school. Emily’s first assignment was to teach an engineering course to high-needs students in grades 9 to 12.
The alternative certification program, although specialized for high-needs math and science students, didn’t prepare Emily for the classroom. Prior to her first job, Emily’s field experience consisted of a two-week internship with a teacher who was neither prepared for her arrival nor welcoming of her. Once Emily accepted her first teaching assignment, her designated mentor proved equally unhelpful. The teacher was from a different content area, was rarely available, and seemed uninterested in serving as a mentor.
Emily says she was given instructional materials that were far beyond the academic level of her students, and she received conflicting messages from her colleagues and administrators about what her teaching priorities should be. Her students were more crude and disrespectful than she had anticipated, and she had to work 15 hours a day and weekends to create course plans and materials that were more appropriate.
“In this environment, you cannot have an off day,” Emily says. “There are the same expectations for producing results of a first-year teacher as there are for a 20-year teacher—no slack allowed.”
Looking back on her rookie year, Emily offers this advice when it comes to supporting novice teachers:
Kevin, a successful entrepreneur with an engineering degree from a prestigious Midwestern university, enjoyed tutoring his children so much that he decided to become a teacher after he sold his business in 2001. To put himself on the fast track, Kevin applied to and was accepted into an alternative teaching certification program in mathematics at a local community college.
Kevin says the academic portion of the program proved to be everything he expected. The teachers were knowledgeable and thorough, and they presented an attitude toward public-school teaching that assured Kevin he had made a wise decision.
The practical portion of the program, however, was another story. “It was almost nonexistent,” Kevin says, noting that he didn’t receive job search assistance nor student teaching experience.
Nevertheless, Kevin landed a job at a big high school in a major urban area. Relying on his limited experience as a substitute teacher, teaching AP math to highly motivated students, Kevin enthusiastically faced his first assignment: five classes of ninth-grade algebra.
His excitement was soon out the window, along with one of his students who left his classroom via the same route on Kevin’s first day of school. The rookie teacher had not been prepared for that kind of behavior, nor was Kevin prepared for another student who abused him with a torrent of obscenities after he asked her to put away her makeup kit. And all this happened within the first 15 minutes of his new career as a teacher. Kevin’s certification program failed to teach him how to recognize gang signs and gang colors, or what clues to look for if he suspected students were using or dealing drugs. These things he had to learn on his own.
Kevin spent five years at that school and eventually received some better assignments, teaching higher-level math to motivated students. His algebra I classes were handed off to the rookie teachers.
Dealing with the daily student discipline problems and the constant pressure of preparing students to pass TAKS tests took their toll on Kevin. So did the lack of administrative support. Fearful of a stroke or heart attack, Kevin’s doctor told him he needed to leave the profession or, at the very least, find a school with a less stressful environment.
Today, Kevin teaches in a suburban district. He enjoys his new assignment and says he doesn’t regret his decision to become a teacher. He does, however, strongly feel that alternative certification programs need to include a student teaching component. He also says that if new teachers must be assigned to a hard-to-staff school, they should be provided with a master teacher as a mentor during their entire first year.
