Our Voices, our Schools - July 2009
Chalkboard recently welcomed new teacher Melissa Mullineaux to a two-month internship. Melissa earned her B.A. from UCLA and her Master's in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia. She is certified to teach grades one through six. We asked for her perspectives as a recently-certified educator who has taught middle school English in Costa Rica and kindergarten in Bologna, Italy.What are some differences you saw when teaching abroad? I was teaching at private schools, but in both Italy and Costa Rica only an undergraduate degree is required for certification. Teachers are respected. All my interactions with parents were positive. For professional development there weren't set hours or worksheets to complete, it was expected that you'd simply ask the other teachers for help. I didn't notice lots of PD conferences, but there were lots of staff meetings. Teacher retention doesn't seem to be an issue, teachers go into teaching for life and it's typical to see teachers with 15 or 30 years of tenure.
What would you change about the professional practice of teaching? Teaching certification programs need improvement. There needs to be more communication and connection between public schools and the universities that offer teaching certificates. The best teachers I had were during the summer, when actual classroom teachers were the instructors, because they brought in real world experience. One area I feel doesn't get enough attention is instruction about teaching kids with disabilities. Teachers aren't getting the information they need to support these students in the classroom. Also, the number of hours required for student teaching needs to be much higher. And I'd love to see incentive pay implemented, to see how it changes the practice of teaching. I think the lack of a link between compensation and excellence is a main driver of teachers leaving the profession.
What are your plans for your teaching career? As an undergrad I volunteered in Watts tutoring Latino students who had signed up for after-school assistance. After I got my teaching degree, it was definitely a plus during my job interviews to have ESL (English as a Second Language) experience and to speak some Spanish. I'll be teaching sixth grade language arts in D.C. at Lincoln Middle School in Columbia Heights, which is a hub for the Latino community with 56% of my student population being Latino.
Are you a teacher for life? I'd really like to teach and work also with government or nonprofits like Chalkboard to have a foot in policy. Being in the classroom is wonderful, but to understand the field of education, I think you need to see other facets such as policy.
We are committed to teamwork and delving deeply into the support of professional practice. An honest exploration about what gets us to better outcomes will be tough but well worth the effort. Understanding the art and mastery of teaching and learning is an evolutionary process that requires courage, discipline and dedication. We are grateful for the time and support to push ourselves on behalf of students.
