Crete-Monee School District 201-U attended the Chicago Southland Consortium Annual Conference on June 15, 2023 at Governors State University. This was the first annual conference held in the Chicago Southland addressing strategies to increase teacher diversity. This event was put on by Governors State University Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), in partnership with the College of Education (COE). This event allows opportunities for PK-22 district leaders, elected officials, representatives from regional offices, educator preparers, and educator candidates to increase their knowledge, expand their toolkit, network, and brainstorm ideas on effective collaborative strategies to address the teacher shortage and build a diverse teacher pipeline.
Crete-Monee Assistant Superintendent, Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL), Ghantel Perkins, presented on the partnership between Crete-Monee School District 201-U and Governors State University (GSU) known as Transition to Teach, a program that supports educational opportunities for students and teachers. Former and current interns from Governors State University that participated in the Transition to Teach Program also shared their experiences with the group at the conference, Erika Glasper, Second Grade Teacher at Balmoral Elementary; Shaquinta Sykes, Fourth Grade Teacher at Monee Elementary; and Edet Eno, who will be student teaching in the Fall of 2023 at Crete-Monee High School.
The goal of this partnership is to provide valuable resources for candidates entering the teaching profession. Crete-Monee School District's Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) department developed this program as part of a Loss Mitigation Plan beginning in the 2021-22 school year in order to provide opportunities for aspiring teachers to develop classroom management and instructional strategies. This program helps interns refine subject matter knowledge and develop proficiency for future teaching positions.
Through the Teacher Intern Program, interns support the educational program according to needs identified by the building principal and commit to 28-hours a week to get hands-on learning. As we begin our third year of this program, the Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) is thrilled to have added four additional interns this past spring, as well as an Intern Liaison to provide professional development and support for our interns throughout the school year.
Three of our previous interns will complete their student teaching within the Crete-Monee School District at the end of this school year where part of the curriculum is observing the classroom teacher and the second portion is teaching in front of the class.
CMSD 201-U also offers field observation and a Lab Training Program which is the first introduction to teaching for Governors State University students. They are required to teach one of three courses twice a week. These initial efforts equip them to become familiar with the Transition to Teach Program which would be their next step. As we continue implementing the program throughout the school district, we have seen huge success in hiring several interns as permanent classroom teachers. Overall, while the primary goal of this program was to assist with the mitigation of learning loss during the 2019-20 school year, the added goal of "growing our own" educators has developed!