Passion To Teach: New teachers bring fresh perspective to classrooms

By GRETCHEN MURRAY
gmurray@record-eagle.com

September 02, 2008 09:41 am

—

TRAVERSE CITY -- A good number of the fresh, eager faces found in classrooms this week will be on the area's new teachers as they bring their energy and enthusiasm to their first day on the job.

They may be stepping into their own classrooms for the very first time, but it won't take them long to get acclimated. Almost all of the area's newly-hired teachers are well experienced in the working world. The region, its lifestyle and its top-notch school systems make it an attractive draw for those in the field of education. Competition is tough for the few job openings in the local school districts where human resource departments have the luxury of selecting from an avalanche of job applications. The wealth of resumes may be an advantage for the districts but it makes the going tough for inexperienced college grads trying to get a foot in the door.

"We received about 1,000 applications this year, 41 were selected," said Jim Linsell, who coordinates the new teacher mentoring program for Traverse City Area Public Schools. Linsell has been with TCAPS for 32 years and knows what makes a good teacher. He was Michigan's Teacher of the Year 2001-2002 and has headed up the mentoring program for five years.

The Michigan Department of Education requires mentors to be assigned to new teachers for the first three years. "TCAPS does that for any teachers that come in to the district," Linsell said. "Even the 'cream of the crop' gets a mentor."

Linsell says new teachers start to build a professional portfolio which is part of the program. They are guided as to what type of information they should include in their portfolio, what represents good teaching and learning. "At the end of three years it becomes a reflective tool," Linsell said.

Adam Vanhouten, an art teacher at West Middle School, recently completed the three-year mentoring program.

"It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off," Vanhouten said. "A lot of senior teachers have developed packages of teaching materials that are helpful to see. They can offer ideas on classroom management and how to organize things and even where to go for meetings."

The mentoring program has been an effective way of retaining teachers. "We don't experience much attrition. They stay," Linsell said. "It's the culture of adult learning that has been established in Traverse City, and it's a wonderful opportunity."

Sally Loup of Traverse City eagerly spent a good chunk of time ensuring her first classroom is especially appealing to her second-grade Math and third-grade Language Arts students at Grand Traverse Academy. Loup is beginning her first year as a teacher but is no stranger to the educational system. She previously worked as an At-Risk and Special Ed aide and a Title 1 aide for TCAPS. She returned to college for a teaching certification when her second child went off to school. Loup says the trend seems to be that the closer you get to retirement the more willing you are to find something else to do. "I know I'm not going to retire," she said. "I want to be more productive then that."

The same could be said for Rod Taplin who begins a new career as an American History and World History teacher at St. Francis High School in Traverse City. Taplin is starting into teaching after retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2004 where he served 21 years on active duty that took him around the world and included two tours in Iraq.

He said his work as an inspection instructor training reservists and his deployment to Somalia as part of Restore Hope inspired his passion for teaching.

"In Somalia, I saw young people with absolutely no opportunity to get out of their life situation. My passion for teaching and seeing that country with nothing gave me a glimpse of how important teachers are in society," Taplin said. "I'm very anxious and eager to pick up the challenge. I realized my whole life has been committed to service. Teaching is one of the best ways to do that."

Andy MacTavish also will start the year at St. Francis with a classroom he can call his own. MacTavish will teach Computer Applications, online Language Arts, Economics and World History. He also will be an after school academic support teacher. He's been a teacher's assistant and a part-time teacher since returning to college for his teaching certification.

MacTavish worked in business for a few years and in 2002 opened Jacob's Well, a coffee house in Traverse City before deciding on a teaching career.

"There certainly wasn't much opportunity here. It's tough to get a teaching job in Traverse City, but I liked it. I knew I'd be good at it, and that it would be rewarding," he said. "I just took my own non-traditional path."

He says the best part of the job will be working with high school students. "You get to teach academics and expand their knowledge, but you also help them with things like socializing and just learning to be good people."

"I've got a big class load, but the teachers here are team oriented," he said. "I think it's going to be a good year."

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.