Teaching program at Middle Georgia universities offers second career

A graduate program at some Middle Georgia universities offers a chance at a second career in education, and another college aims to provide the same in due time.

The master of arts in teaching degree at Georgia College, offered at the university’s downtown Macon campus, is directed at those who have an undergraduate degree that isn’t in the education field. That’s because, unlike many other graduate teaching degrees, the MAT provides a teaching certificate along with the master’s degree.

“Typically, my students are people who have been out of college for a little bit, tried other careers and weren’t satisfied,” said Betta Vice, Georgia College’s secondary education program coordinator.

For those people, there are two main tracks to a teaching certificate: the MAT route or the Teacher Alternative Preparation Program. Vice said the MAT holds several advantages over the TAPP certification process.

For one, teachers who go through the MAT program hold a master’s degree, so they begin at the T5 level of the salary schedule, Vice said. TAPP teachers start at T1. That is a difference of about $7,000 in base salary in the first year alone, according to the salary schedule on the Bibb County school district’s website.

Further, Vice said she doesn’t feel like the TAPP process gives teachers enough support to consistently pass certification exams such as the new edTPA.

“TAPP teachers have not been successful on the edTPA the first time out,” she said.

In general, having that education degree is helpful, particularly for people who don’t have a background in teaching. Eric Payne, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for Houston County schools, said those teaching strategies and procedures are important to learn and worth the time and effort of getting a degree.

“If you go to a college program and the focus is on teaching, ... you’re receiving the proper training that you need,” he said.

Mercer University also has a MAT program focused on science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Middle Georgia State University plans to join Georgia College in offering the program, but it has not been approved yet by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

“We’ll be excited to share the details of our program at the appropriate time,” Lee Greenway, director of communications, wrote in a statement from the university.

Teaching how to teach

The MAT program at Georgia College focuses on the pedagogy, lesson planning and other concepts of learning how to be a teacher. Vice, who taught English and social studies in Washington, D.C., and upstate New York for 32 years, said that any content knowledge is based on what the teaching candidates brought from their initial degree and experience.

“We do methods for teaching specific content, but they don’t take any content classes,” she said.

Students will break into groups based on their initial content area to discuss the applications and lesson plan ideas for their subject.

While students start their path through the one- or two-year program with a content area in mind, they can add other certifications by taking different Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators. For instance, one of Vice’s past pupils came from a business background and started the program with a focus in that area.

By the end, he had switched to middle school science.

“And he’s now a middle grades science teacher and loves it,” Vice said.

Vice noted that there are now 62 students in the MAT program at Georgia College, which is a little down from what she’s seen in the past. The “testing culture” that has cropped up over the last 15 years or so has led people to be skeptical about the teaching field, she said, and she even sees “so many discouraged teachers” in her professional development work in some of Bibb County’s high schools.

“I think the perception out there is that it’s very difficult, very challenging,” Vice said. “Teachers are feeling very overwhelmed.”

For that reason, Vice’s goal for the program is to remind teachers that there is a different way to educate students. She focuses on activities, simulations, collaborative group work and other educational strategies that bring “passion and enthusiasm” back into the mix.

That’s especially important for aspiring educators who may have been a product of the test-driven “No Child Left Behind” years.

“They don’t know any other way,” Vice said. “Once they see a different way to teach, it’s like an ‘aha’ moment.”

Payne said that even for teachers who have been in the classroom already and administrators, it’s always good to “refresh and update” with ideas for reaching students in new, engaging ways.

“I think it can re-energize teachers a lot of times,” he said. “We talk about making learning fun again. I think we can make teaching fun.”

Once they’ve completed the program, teaching opportunities are there for educators for all disciplines. Vice said that math, chemistry and foreign languages are particularly high-demand fields, with four chemistry openings in Bibb County alone, but she hasn’t seen her students have any trouble getting into the classroom.

“There is a huge demand for teachers,” Vice said. “My students all get jobs.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Teaching program at Middle Georgia universities offers second career."