By Crystal McGough
Last week, the Tribune reported that Clay-Chalkville Middle and High School would be serving as pilot schools for a $150,000 American Federation of Teachers Innovation Fund grant called “For Teachers, By Teachers,” which was awarded to the Jefferson County-AFT.
Through the grant, unit development teams consisting of teachers throughout the Jefferson County School District are writing curriculum units that line up with the Common Core State Standards, a set of standards adopted by Alabama, 45 other states and the District of Columbia to prepare students to enter college or the workforce with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. These units will be piloted by CCMS and CCHS teachers and student teachers in the spring.
The grant also places pre-service teachers, education students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham who are not yet student teachers, in classrooms at the CCMS and CCHS to gain experience while working with a mentoring teacher.
At a press release luncheon at UAB Friday, some of these pre-service teachers and their mentor teachers were given the opportunity to speak about their experiences and what they have gained from the program.
“The only way to describe the experience is fantastic,” pre-service teacher Laura Ashley said. Ashley is a graduate student at UAB, working on her Masters of Education. Through the grant, she is currently working with a sixth grade English class and an eighth grade English class at CCMS.
“It’s wonderful to have this experience before I go into the classroom because I have the opportunity to try out my ideas,” she said. “I also have a special experience because I have a first year teacher and a 25-year teacher.”
Ashley said that the biggest lesson she has learned through this experience is that not every day will be perfect.
“It’s not going to be a wonderful day every day,” she said.
By watching how her mentor teachers handle their students, Ashley said she has learned how to control herself in the classroom and how to present herself as a teacher.
“That was a really useful skill for me, because you can write lesson plans all day, but implementing them and making them affective for the right group of students is a really important skill,” she said.
One of Ashley’s mentor teachers is Brittany Bullard , a first-year sixth grade English teacher at CCMS. Bullard said that, in her first year of teaching, the different aspects of the grant have helped her significantly.
“My unit development team has been extremely helpful,” she said. “They have let me sample some of their drives. I found that somethings that maybe I wouldn’t have even considered, and I’ve tried because they suggested it, had amazing results.”
Bullard said that having a pre-service teacher has been helpful to her, as well.
“With Laura Ashley in the room with me, it’s amazing because I can go to her for feedback,” she said. “She’s been there since the beginning and she’s there constantly. It’s just nice to have all of that support.”
Jasmine Clisby, a grad student at UAB who is working with one 11th grade and one 12th grade English class at CCHS, said her experience is similar to Ashley’s, because she is also with a first-year teacher and a more experienced teacher.
“I get to see the difference between them both,” Clisby said. “I actually helped (first-year teacher Jennifer Rush) set up her classroom, so that was a good thing to experience.”
Time management and getting organized are two things Clisby said she has learned.
“Just things that I know I wouldn’t be able to get out of a textbook,” she said. “Just that valuable experience of actually getting to be in a classroom and see how the students react to you, seeing which strategies will work, what doesn’t work. It’s just an awesome experience. I’m really glad to be given the opportunity to do this.”
Kenslea Ray, an undergraduate student at UAB, is working with CCHS English Department Chair Carrie Beth Buchanan in a Pre-AP ninth grade English class and a general 10th grade English class
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“The first day of school, I was able to see what that looks like,” Ray said. “We’ve gone through classroom management, we’ve seen what you’re supposed to do. To see the student’s come to the door for the first time, it just makes such a difference. Honestly, I was intimidated at first…but Carrie Beth just allowed me to jump in and gave me opportunities to start to teach.”
Ray said that the first time she taught a lesson, she “did lots of things that probably weren’t the best way to do it.”
“Carrie Beth encouraged me,” she said. “For the next class, I was able to change those things and to see how important it is just to tweak those things and to modify them. Carrie Beth has been good just to show me, that’s how you become a good teacher and it’s not going to happen over night.”
Buchanan said that the ninth-grade Pre-AP Common Core Curriculum is already complete.
“I am currently piloting this year in my classroom,” she said. “We have really raised the bar for the students. I think it’s great that Kenslea and I can show, with so much support and modeling, that our students can reach that higher expectation.”
She also said that the communication and collaboration between the middle school and high school teachers has been beneficial in helping the teachers support each other.
“The momentum and the excitement is just so palpable right now,” Buchanan said. “I just want for that to continue and I want us to continue supporting each other. I want Kenslea to know that, when she graduates, any resource I have is hers. With all of you, we just have to keep up this communication and keep working together and all be better teachers. It’ll be better for our kids.”
For more details on the “For Teachers, By Teachers” grant, visit https://www.trussvilletribune.com/?p=2204.
CCMS and CCHS English teachers and UAB student pre-service teachers spoke of the benefits of the new JCAFT Innovation Fund Grant “For Teachers, By Teachers.” From left to right: Laura Ashley, Brittany Bullard, Kenslea Ray, Carrie Beth Buchanan and Jasmine Clisby.
Photo by Crystal McGough
