KATHLEEN -- Sitting on a multicolored rug in Tami Walker’s pre-kindergarten class at Matt Arthur Elementary, the students ventured through space Friday morning.

“3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Blast off!” they all cried in unison.

Walker continued to read Melvin Berger’s “Out in Space” to the class, zipping past the Earth, moon and the planets in the solar system. They even stopped by Pluto, the celestial body formerly classified as a planet.

Eventually, they made it back to Earth and sang about the planets with their teacher.

The bubbly Walker seems to fit right in with the students, even though she entered the teaching field after getting a business degree from California State University, Sacramento.

“Life happens, life changes and it becomes this,” she said.

Walker is currently participating in the Georgia Teacher Academy for Preparation and Pedagogy, which allows people who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher in fields other than education to become teachers.

Potential teachers must first pass a state skills assessment test to participate in the program. From there, the candidates must be hired by a school as well as take courses in education. Participation in the TAPP program can take anywhere from one to three years.

Walker started TAPP classes last year after taking evening education classes at Wesleyan College, which will no longer be offered after the spring.

As of Jan. 5, 2009, 42 were teachers enrolled in the TAPP program in Houston County. However, that number dropped by half in each of the following two years -- in January 2010, there were 22 TAPP teachers, and there were only 11 as of a month ago.

The economy may be to blame for the decreased numbers, Helms said. With the district reducing staff, it was not in a position to add more teachers.

Recently though, there has been a surge in interest in the program from would-be teachers.

“In the past year I’ve personally received more calls about TAPP than in my three years here,” said Tim Helms, Houston’s assistant superintendent for human resources.

So far, the program has attracted everyone from former military members to business administration majors.

“They bring maturity and a sense of what it’s like in the business and corporate world,” Helms said. “They can bring a different chemistry to the classroom.”

Real-world experience

Warner Robins Middle School math teacher Andre Thomas became a teacher through TAPP four years ago, almost two decades after graduating from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in industrial management. After college, he worked at Amoco Fabrics and Fibers for a year-and-a half before spending five years at the Federal Reserve Bank in Jacksonville, Fla.

Thomas moved back to Georgia to be closer to family after the birth of his first child. He later worked at Mercer University, originally seeking to pursue a master’s degree in divinity. Eventually, he earned a master’s in marriage and family therapy from the school in 2005.

Thomas was looking to make a career change that would offer flexibility, help kids and become closer to his own. The solution? Teaching.

In the classroom, Thomas tries to apply his math lessons to real-world situations, showing, for example, that students use algebra when figuring out what to buy at the mall with a limited amount of money.

“People in different industries bring a wealth of experience in class, not just the education piece, but life experience,” said Thomas, who is also a co-pastor at New Song Missionary Baptist Church in Warner Robins.

Veterans High School science teacher Kim Kreis, who has a master’s degree in meteorology from North Carolina State University, became a teacher in 2009 after a 12-year career in the Air Force.

While relying on her knowledge of science in both jobs, she has used it differently in each case.

As a weather flight commander in the Air Force, she constantly used complex knowledge on the job. As a high school teacher, Kreis introduces students to fields such as genetics or chemistry for the first time.

After working as an internal auditor and a buyer for a small boutique, as well as providing support to other Air Force families, Walker decided to become a teacher after having children.

“I became like so many mothers, just completely in love with how amazing children are,” she said. “I could not get enough of spending time and learning from them.”

Lessons about the classroom

For many of the teachers in the program, it’s as much about learning how to run a classroom as it is imparting knowledge to the students.

“It’s learning on the job, on-the-job training, throw-into-the-wolves training,” Kreis said.

“None of the kids could fault me for my knowledge of science -- I knew it cold. What I didn’t know specifically was how to run a classroom.”

As she moved beyond the first day of class, Kreis began to learn what was ineffective in the classroom, such as not having a discipline plan or the proper materials.

“The first semester as a TAPP teacher is painful, but you learn so much,” she said.

Observing more experienced teachers helped Kreis improve her own management of the classroom.

“It’s something I do everywhere I go,” she said. “I know there’s some way to do it better and someone doing it better than I can.”

Through her own experience as an educator, Walker learned to trust her own instincts.

“You’re going to make mistakes,” she said. “It’s going to be OK. I have great people around me, and I’m reminded of that all the time. These amazing people have prepared me for what I’m going to do.”

Lessons outside the classroom

While the TAPP teachers have an impact in school, they also reach students beyond the classroom.

Several years ago, Thomas began mentoring at Eagle Springs Elementary once or twice a week, where his son was a student. Through his time volunteering he began to provide guidance to students, especially those in single-parent homes.

“The kids were having trouble,” he said. “That’s what kind of piqued my interest and help more kids.”

Walker, Thomas and Kreis have all considered their foray into teaching a rewarding experience, even through the challenging times.

Kreis, for example, was one of 53 teachers who were laid off in Houston County last year because of massive budget cuts. Just before the start of the school year though, she was rehired by the system along with 21 other laid off teachers.

She said the summer in between was a difficult one, trying to find a new job and dealing with her husband leaving for Afghanistan for more than a year.

“The only thing I knew was that I did want to be a teacher,” she said.