Lipscomb provides instruction, mentorship for Teach For America corps this summer
Janel Shoun-Smith |
Education college continues to draw TFA teachers to master's and doctorate programs
This summer, Lipscomb University’s College of Education will provide more of its nationally ranked instruction to Nashville’s Teach For America teaching corps than ever before.
Teach For America, the acclaimed national organization that recruits and trains enthusiastic college graduates to become classroom teachers, began holding its six-week, intensive summer institute for Nashville’s corps on the Lipscomb campus last year, and this year Lipscomb faculty Ally Hauptman, Michelle Hasty and Julie Simone are providing instruction for the corps.
“The intent was to pull some of the certification coursework into the summer, before they begin working in their own classrooms,” said Simone, Lipscomb’s liaison to the TFA program. “This way they can get exposed to some education veterans and practice strategies for equitable classrooms that increase student learning.”
The Lipscomb professors are providing instructional practice course work that past corps members didn’t study until later in the process, after having begun teaching at their posts.
Since Teach For America came to Nashville in 2009, its summer training institute had been held in other locations, until last year. In 2014, as many as 1,000 Nashville school children had access to enhanced summer instruction as the TFA corps members began their practice teaching in three Nashville schools.
This year the corps is practice teaching at Cole Elementary and Pearl Cohn High School, already bringing with them valuable tools learned from Lipscomb professors, such as how to set up classroom norms and procedures, effective ways to give feedback, how to remain emotionally objective, how to create an inclusive classroom and how to facilitate academic discourse.
“This new aspect of the partnership really strengthens the work of both partners: it allows the TFA corps to build a relationship with their mentors and teachers prior to entering the classroom and it allows Lipscomb faculty to really do what we do best for the TFA members,” Simone said.
The topics are pulled from the first two courses each corps member will take this fall when they begin working on their licensure coursework: Building Classroom Communities and Planning, Instruction and Assessment. In addition, faculty from Lipscomb's Department of Psychology and Family Sciences presented a session on self-care and teaching.
The 2015 Nashville corps has 101 members, the vast majority of which will be enrolled in licensure classes at Lipscomb this fall. Teach for America picked Lipscomb in 2009 as its partner to provide licensure course work for the Nashville corps.
After earning their licenses, many of the TFA corps opt to earn a Master in Education at Lipscomb. More than half of the 2014 corps are currently enrolled in master’s classes, after almost 90 percent worked to advance their licenses to teach beyond their two-year commitment, and Lipscomb is now accepting its first Nashville TFA corps members into its Ed.D. program, said Simone.
Teach For America has proven highly successful in Nashville and is among the most highly regarded programs in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s annual teacher effectiveness report card. As of last year, 56 percent of the TFA Nashville corps have stayed in the Nashville school system after their two-year commitment.