| "Awesome" and "well organized" are
the first words out of Ingrid Cherrington's mouth when she is asked
about the Teacher TRaining ACademy (Teacher TRAC). Marilu Rosales
is just as complimentary about the program, which guides students on a
teacher preparation path from Cerritos College to California State
University, Long Beach.
Both have good reason to be enthusiastic - come May, they will
graduate with teaching credentials in hand, a solid record of classroom
experience behind them, and the tantalizing prospect of good jobs ahead
despite budget uncertainty that makes hiring plans at many school
districts up in the air at the moment. But, as Rosales says, the
program has gained a good reputation and the Long Beach Unified School
District has expressed interest in hiring Teacher TRAC graduates.
The Teacher TRAC program emphasizes smooth transitions, taking
students through two years in community college, where they complete
general education classes, some preliminary teacher preparation training
and hands-on field work in local elementary schools. Students can
then transfer to Long Beach with assurance that their coursework is
eligible for credit and that the fieldwork that they have completed
counts towards Long Beach credential requirements. Under Long
Beach's integrated (also known as "blended") program, students
receive both a bachelor's degree and their preliminary teaching
credential in just four years and one summer of work.
For Cherrington, the Teacher TRAC program helped her with the
decision about her career choice. Although she started community
college as a pre-medical student, she soon decided that teaching better
met her desire to spend time with children. "I've always
loved children. When I was pre-med, I wanted to be a
pediatrician," she says. "But then I started working
directly with kids with the Parks and Recreation Department for the City
of Downey and fell in love with it."
After that, teaching seemed a natural choice, and the Teacher TRAC
program made the pathway clear. "It's a really organized,
awesome program," Cherrington says. "It met my needs to
the fullest extent, and the interaction with the staff was
outstanding. The professors are hand picked. They make you
feel more like a colleague than a student; there was the feeling that we
were working together to succeed rather than just a teacher lecturing a
student."
One of the best parts of the program has been her team teaching
experience with Rosales at Cleveland Elementary School in
Lakewood. The two work together under a master teacher in the
fifth grade, although each will also spend time individually in a third
grade classroom with another teacher.
The team teaching experience has been very powerful, according to
Rosales. "We have a wonderful master teacher who has been
teaching more than 20 years," she says. "You might
presume that older teachers would lose their enthusiasm, but that isn't
the case here. The kids just naturally love her and we've really
been able to learn through the example she sets."
Rosales took a little longer than Cherrington to decide to become a
teacher, taking a few years off after high school before entering
community college. A deciding factor was her daughter, now four
years old. "I realized how important it would be when she
starts school to be involved in her education, and as I began working
with kids it became a real passion for me."
While Cherrington and Rosales are focused on elementary school in the
short term, they both have bigger plans for the future.
Cherrington wants to get her master's degree and administrative services
credential so that she can eventually become a principal. Rosales
similarly is interested in a master's degree and may want to add a
doctorate in child development or child psychology. But for now,
both are simply excited to be very close to completing their degrees and
preliminary credentials.
Source: CalTeach Article
Date Published: Spring 2003 |
