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Christine Roland graduated from Towson University in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in biology. She completed academic preparation towards teacher certification at Harford Community College in 2002.

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Miss Rowland taught biology in the Harford County Public Schools for almost a decade before accepting a position in the UTeach program at Towson University in 2012. These are her reflections.

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Miss Rowland, thank you so much for taking your time to come in and talk to us about your education and preparation to become a teacher and your career. A good place to start is in the beginning.

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And so would you share with us a little bit about your early social context, where you grew up, and the kind of thoughts you were having about what you might want to pursue as a career as an adult?

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So, I grew up in Switzerland near Zurich, and I was born there. My family is still there and I went through a traditional, you know, K-12 comparable program and I was not an A student. I was not that overachieving student.

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I was not a very academic strong student. I have very smart siblings and my father was a physicist. So there was some pressure to do well. And so I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do.

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I played around with different jobs initially and then I started to work at a advertising agency. And so my first professional degree is in advertising and public relations.

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And it was a lot of fun. It was fast, it was fun, it was hip, it was cool. We did all these crazy things. And then came the time, and that's quite a European tradition, where traveling became

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a question. I wanted to learn languages. I wanted to travel. I wanted to see the world before settling down.

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And so I did. And every penny that I had saved went into, I'm going to make it around the globe. I didn't make it around the globe, but what happened was I

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traveled to different places. First, I went to England, I went to France. I learned the languages because I failed them in school. And I found out that it was much easier to learn once I was in a

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city where I knew nobody. So I went to London, I went to Paris and, you know, just a bunch of other cities and spent anywhere from three to six months there.

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I went to school and learned. And then I went to Egypt... My heavens. ...and went to Sinai. And at that time that was a... Sharm El-Sheikh was a tiny, tiny town really designated to the love of diving, scuba diving.

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And that's where I got my first teaching job. And I taught scuba diving in Sinai and the Red Sea for two years. And that's where I fell in love with anything

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marine, ocean, those kinds of things. I left Egypt because I was still on my way around the world. So I did one of those things on the map and found Honduras. I flew to Honduras, to the Bay Islands, to Roatan Bay Islands,

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and was looking for a job, found a job as, again, a dive instructor and spent a season there. And then I got sick and I had malaria and it was time. It was at that time, it was three years on on the road.

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It was time to go home and start to think about what to do. And I started to think about marine biology, studying marine biology. I started to think about marine science, something along those

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lines. I then flew back and on that plane I met my future husband, who is American. So that's why I came to the United States and I'm now living

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here. And actually he was the one who suggested why not go back for another degree and why not go and pursue that love? And so I did come to Towson University for marine science to

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get my undergrad in marine science. And I did. So after that we get... I never thought about teaching formally teaching that was far away. That was my next question. Yes.

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What were you thinking about as you completed that bachelor's degree here? What did you think you might look for in terms of a position someplace?

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It was the pursuit of my passion of marine science and it was the pursuit to please my parents. And finally, you know, join the family of becoming more academically oriented.

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And I did love it. I did love the marine science and I did love that whole piece. It was always a little fuzzy as to what I was going to do. So I have a brother in research and I felt that, you know,

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that's what one does. So you just keep going to school and then you enter research. I was a non-traditional student, obviously, so I was older. And on the day I got my bachelor's degree, May 22nd, a

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long time ago here at Towson University, I gave birth to my first child. So I didn't make it across the stage. And so there came that natural break of OK, now, you know, I'm

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going to be home for a while with family and children. And then I got bored. So the first, you know, few years full-time mom, that was great.

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And I did enjoy it. And then I got bored after a while and felt like, well, there has to be more out there. So people started to tell me about, why don't you become a

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teacher? And initially it was because you have summers off. They were lying. But you have summers off and you have a family and you can pursue

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traveling and all of those kinds of things. And I was very much against it. I felt like there's no way I could ever teach. I don't have the patience and I don't have the discipline.

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I don't have all of these pieces. And I felt like I needed to explore some of these options. So I contacted the local high school and I contacted the department chair, the science department chair there, and my

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youngest one at that point had just started preschool. So three times a week I asked if I could just come and hang out, basically, in the science department. And she was really great.

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I hit the right person at the right time, and so she invited me in. And first I was just hanging out in her classes because I had never gone to school here.

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I didn't know what an American high school looked like. I knew what European high schools looked like. So it was one of those things where I felt like I have no clue what teaching looks like in this culture and in this country.

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So before I could ever even think about what all these other people were telling me, I felt like I needed to find out what that was like. So I just wanted to spend time in a high school science, high

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school classroom. Absolutely, definitely. And I did that for a year. So twice a week I would just go and be in different classrooms.

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So after a while I would, you know, get to know the faculty. And they got used to me, as odd as it was. And I would start to help out sometimes, an extra set of hands. And it was extremely formative for me.

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It was really an important time because I knew nothing about teaching. I knew nothing about pedagogy. I knew nothing about any of it.

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And yet I knew what I liked and what I didn't like when I was observing teaching and learning. And then after that year, I decided that, you know what? This could be really interesting to do.

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This could be something that really could become interesting. And so I entered an alternative certification pathway because I couldn't afford to go back and earn another degree. And what was that?

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What was your alternative pathway? So that was an accelerated program at Harford Community College. I see.

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And it was... I think it was only there for like a year or two years. It was quite brief. It was a cohort set up for people who, you know, had other

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obligations during the day. And so I did go to school at night, and I went to school during summer, which worked out. My husband, once he retired from teaching, also joined the

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teaching profession. And so those things worked out. But I never student taught. That was going to be my next question.

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I never student taught. So I finished my program and I finished my coursework and it was interesting. And we never were in the field. Not at all?

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Because the idea was that afterwards there is the opportunity to matriculate to another institution and do the student teaching, or at that time there was still the provisional certification.

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And so I finished my program in May and I put out, you know, I applied for a job in Harford County where I live, and I didn't hear anything for a long time. So I went to some interviews at the district level until August

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and then mid-August I had got a phone call. Would you be interested in a jo? And obviously things had happened at that school. This is not atypical, lots of individuals are hired in mid-

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August and that's, I guess, what we say to all our graduates is that you may not graduate with a job in hand. Right. Because, you know, you have to shift people around and who's retiring and all those kinds of things.

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So here it is mid-August for you. Here it is mid-August for me and it's like, you're going to start school in two weeks and I had never student taught. So it was, but I was older, I was a parent.

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I think that helped a great deal. And, again, I was lucky to come into a really rich culture in the department that I joined, where my colleagues became my mentors.

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And so it was trial by fire. I floated every period. I taught biology and I floated every period. So I had my little train of carts.

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And I never forget the day, I think it was, I don't know, after six weeks or so, I had beakers, 24 beakers with goldfish, individual goldfish on my cart as I'm running down the hallway.

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And I lost a wheel. Oh no. And this is during class change and I have fish everywhere and kids everywhere and water everywhere and we didn't lose a

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single fish. That was miraculous. Miraculous and quite great. Then it was, if I can do that... A great way to engage students. Yes, it was. A lot of questions.

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What was going on with the fish. So this was difficult in the sense that it's difficult that first year. It's difficult to float.

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And yet I learned more that first year than I think I could ever have had I been in isolation in my room, because every teacher stayed in their room while I was teaching. And after every lesson, I got feedback whether I wanted it or

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not. And I got advice, some of it good, some of it questionable at times, but I really got feedback everyday, all the time. And I had to get organized.

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I had to think about things, I had to question, because every time I got feedback, the question became, well, OK, so now what? And so I feel like as exhausting as that was, it really was an

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opportunity for me to learn a tremendous amount in that first year. Well, you packed in your learning. I mean, I think it's difficult for all first year teachers, but

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many of them come in with at least some hands-on in-schools kind of experience. So, well, it was just going to be a difficult year for you.

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There was so much learning. It was a difficult year for me in the sense that it's just a lot of work and I had a family. I had, you know, other obligations.

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I don't think I would recommend that particular pathway to somebody younger in the sense that I did not have to prove my... I never got questions from my students when they said, did you teach before?

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I'm thinking, yes, I did. I taught scuba diving, but yes, I did. So we never qualified that. So coming in, as you know, obviously somebody with a past,

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I didn't get challenged as much from my students from they just accepted me and didn't know any better. So that was the easier part. Now that helped me instructionally, you know, I had

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a tremendous learning curve that I had to do and that I had to master. And that, again, that was very helpful to have these colleagues and a very supportive environment that really allowed

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me to grow and learn and try out things and fail and get it wrong and recognize that, you know, that wasn't necessarily the best choices at times instructionally. Now, in order to move to certification rather than

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provisional, what did you have to do? Was that just teaching a number of years or... One. It was one year. After one year, it was basically submitting it and so that

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counted for the student teaching and I already had a degree. So it wasn't a question of degree. It was really just a question of I still had to do all the Praxis requirements and everything else obviously, but

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that I had done before I started to work. So the only thing missing was the student teaching piece that then that one year accounted for. So, so there you are, Edgewood High School teaching biology and

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you did that for... I was at Edgewood High School for eight years and I taught biology. I taught all levels of biology. I taught a bunch of electives.

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And the really fun part was that it took about a week in that first year to totally fall in love with teaching. I knew that this is and I didn't know that because I had told my husband, because I hadn't taught.

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I told my husband that, you know what, if I hate it, I have a one year contract. I'll finish this one year. But if I hate it, I'll find something else.

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And it took one week to recognize that I have... I'm exactly where I need to be. And that was incredibly assuring. So all of that hard work was OK to do.

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And so then after that first year, I became part of the faculty just like every other teacher would, and was given opportunities and loved it. I loved it.

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I loved Edgewood High School. I still do. We had a population that at times was challenging and other times incredibly rewarding.

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We had tremendous diversity, whether it's ethnic, socio- demographic, ability-wise, and I loved every part of it and I still do. So it was neat teaching there, and fun.

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It was a lot of fun. At some point while working at the high school, you are asked to become a teaching coach. I was an instructional coach afterwards.

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Oh, I see. So this was after I was at Edgewood High School. You grow into certain roles. I became more active in leadership roles.

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I've become more active in, you know, science department of Harford County and was involved in curriculum writing and all sorts of other other things. And then came an opportunity where we had an MSP grant and

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math and science partnership grant and so I became the instructional coach, science instructional coach for Harford County. And that involved working with teachers grades three through eight

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Across the county? Across the county, how to teach science best. So the focus was on science education, but the grade band had shifted.

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So now it was from three to eight versus my high school experience. And again, it was a time for me to stretch because it was really a time... Who am I to know how to teach best science in, you know, third grade.

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And you had done it successfully for a number of years. Yes. Well, I had done it at high school. Right. I had done it at high school.

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So what that was is we had summer institutes where we partnered with universities across basically Maryland and we provided professional development in week-long institutes during the summer to our teachers where it we just

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really pushed content. It was all about... So we would, you know, have an academy on earth science, we would have an academy on life science.

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And so really focused on the building up that content piece and rebuilding the content piece. And then during the school year, the cohorts met once a month at night for reinforcement of pedagogy,

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evaluation of pedagogy. We engaged in finding new pedagogy, what works, trying out things. And it was amazing because I was having the privilege of working

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with really gifted teachers who cared deeply about their own instruction. And so we became this professional learning community that was incredibly effective and people were implementing

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things. And I had the best of all moments because I got to co- teach, sometimes model teach, sometimes observe these lessons and these units where we were trying these things out and then

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we would regroup once a month. What worked, what didn't work, how do we move forward? What do we like? And because it was across the district, we had not only

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vertical diversity in our grade levels because we had... Our third grade teachers were talking to our eighth grade teachers and sharing the conversation, but it went also across geographic boundaries.

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So it wasn't just, OK, this area always struggles with these issues, and it was a very rich conversation that evolved from that and extremely rewarding. So that was... I did that for two years before I came here.

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And did you do that as an employee in Harford County? Yes. So that was... So it was sort of central office kind of or... Yes, I think it was one of those things where you go on loan for

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a little bit where the money comes from a grant. But I was an employee of of Harford County definitely. Then you must have gotten a phone call or heard about, you know, somebody from your alma mater, Towson University

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approached you. Well, then my grants ran out. So it was time to look around. Well, there you go. It was time. So again, I was lucky.

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The timing was right. The timing was right. And so I was starting to look around and the piece that was missing as an instructional coach was having my own classes

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because I am a teacher. I will always be a teacher. I'm a teacher at heart and I love thinking about teaching and I love reading about, learning about teaching, but I really do

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need to teach also my content and things like that. So that was the piece that I felt was missing because I didn't have my own classes anymore as a coach. So then I heard about UTeach and through roundabout ways, and

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I had no idea, I'd never heard about the program before, understandably because it wasn't in the area. And so I googled it and I found the information from the

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University of Texas and I knew that this is exactly what I wanted to do. This was it. This was going to have to have...

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I wanted this, to become a master teacher for this program. And so, yes, I, again, lucked out and ended up here in that position initially. OK, and when did that happen?

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That happened a year and a half ago. So that was at the very beginning of the program. The program came to Towson University. It must have been in the spring of 2012.

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And we started with students in the fall of 2012. So it was very quick... Again, I got hired in August. There's a pattern there, right?

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And students by the end of the month. So it was a very quick turnaround where we had to start thinking about what to do for our students. And now are you doing this as an employee of Towson University or

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is this grant-funded? Combination of both? Combination of both. So I am an employee of of the university, but the whole program right now is still grant-funded.

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So for the first four years. Can you tell us a little bit about UTeach and what makes that approach to teacher education different? So when I think about my history and how I came to teaching, it

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was accidental. It was one of those things that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do that. And my work with teachers, often times I would hear about, well,

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how did you come to teaching? My mom was a teacher, my dad was a teacher. I always wanted to be a teacher. And so one of the questions I always had is who becomes a

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teacher? Who makes that decision and turns toward teaching, especially in the STEM field, because of so many opportunities that students who are shown in the science and

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mathematics have. Teaching still has in this culture versus the culture I grew up in a sort of secondary citizen nature to it that if, you know, if you can, you do and if you can't you teach. So it's one of those things where I was curious, who is

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becoming a teacher and who is not becoming a teacher? And if you are, you know, not becoming a teacher, why is that? So UTeach invites students as freshmen to think about teaching, to contemplate teaching, to entertain the idea

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of becoming a teacher. But this is exclusively for STEM fields. Yes. So, right now this is exclusively, this is in response to the teacher shortage, secondary teacher shortages,

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national teacher shortages. Now, UTeach originated 20 years ago in Texas and that was in response to that. So this program has been around for a long time.

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It is all across the nation. We are the first ones in Maryland, but by far not the first ones to implement it. So the idea is to invite students to think about teaching

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and they come to us for a one- credit course and we give them a crash course in teaching and we want them to have this experience, this very experiential learning of being a teacher, of what is

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involved in being a teacher. So they come to us and we really do boot camp and it's intense and it's quick but it's never enough time. But all our students plan and teach three lessons in their first

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semester, full lessons, the whole entire thing. And it has to be inquiry-based. They're not allowed to lecture. And in the first semester they are in fourth and fifth grade.

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I see. Even though they want to be high school teachers and that is obviously because they were just high school students not so long ago and they get to be rock stars in an elementary school

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and experience that. And the goal here is for them to basically have the opportunity that I had when I was, you know, teaching my first lessons in my first week.

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And that was to fall in or out of love with teaching. And it's really interesting to see some of them who thought they would always be teachers are questioning that decision.

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And they're like, this is not what I thought. I tutored. I loved tutoring. This is not what I thought.

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And others who never thought about teaching was like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea. I love this. I had a student tell me, you ruined my life, after she walked

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out of the classroom the first time. I said, I did, single handedly? And she said yes, because this is what I'm meant to do. And I only took this class for fun.

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And I looked at her and I said, I can see that. So, you know, you have a little bit of time to think about and you don't have to make decisions right away. But yeah, I can see that.

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So the students get to do that and get that visceral response, that emotional response. Because the truth of the matter is that everybody thinks they know what teaching is because everybody went to school and

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it's... Nobody sees behind the curtain, right, until you actually do it. So we don't show the man behind the curtain until we actually start to think about teaching and learning and all that is

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involved with that. So many of the students come in with somewhat of a naive idea about what teaching involves, especially if they come from really strong teachers, because they make it look so easy.

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So then that's their first look. That's their first sense. If they like it or if they think they like it, they come back. The second semester, we do the exact same thing, but this time

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we put them in middle school. And so this time it's a different audience and it's a different content in the sense that the content becomes more demanding.

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So that first year is... We call that the exploration year where we want our students to just find out if they emotionally connect to this profession and if they like it because it's so important if they have that, if they can build the

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relationships, if they're comfortable with the students, and if they can visualize themselves in that environment. What I didn't know was going to happen was that they start very early on thinking about themselves as teachers.

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So that teacher identity starts to form much, much earlier. And they start to think about, well, if I was a teacher, I would do it this way. And if, you know, and we watch that and we see that evolve.

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And on Twitter, they have conversations over summer that, hey, I saw this, isn't that great instructional strategy, after one year in, you know, just being at university. So the second year, we call it the decision year because now

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they take their first course that really is comparable to an ed psych course. They start to think about the theories that went into this. They start to read and form some of their opinions in that

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respect. In the third semester, they're not in a classroom, but then in the fourth semester, and that's where our students are now, they finally get to go to high school.

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So at this point, they now plan and teach their lessons. This year it's two. Spring is a little difficult with spring breaks. Sometimes it can be three.

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And they get to teach their content in a high school classroom and see what that feels like. And that happens in those first two years. At that time they make that decision.

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So this is the deciding year and we do a lot of coaching, reflecting, soul searching, all of those pieces. It's also during this time where it's a more critical piece in their content area.

00:30:04.320 - 00:30:19.130

They are starting to get into some of the harder classes, especially in mathematics, and are starting to look at, OK, what are the options, what can I do, what can I not do? And so during this time they apply formally to the program

00:30:19.130 - 00:30:32.520

and then once they start their junior year, they are part of the UTeach program before it's anybody can take our courses. And then they have one more semester where they have no placement.

00:30:32.520 - 00:30:47.920

And then the final three semester they are again in field placements that are focused on inquiry-based, constructivism- based instruction and where they're really looking at how the content fits.

00:30:48.360 - 00:31:03.170

So that's what the students do. What UTeach also does is we have the luxury of focusing on science and math exclusively, secondary. So we're looking at the pedagogy of science and math and STEM and

00:31:03.170 - 00:31:12.920

how that interacts. And it's very interesting to be able to do that because obviously we believe it's, you know, teaching science is very different from teaching a foreign language or anything

00:31:12.920 - 00:31:21.120

else. So the conversation is always about how do we best teach science and math and how can we connect it to and do all of those things.

00:31:21.800 - 00:31:35.920

So that's another unique difference to the program. And the third difference is people like me. So we have master teachers in the program and the master teachers work the whole entire time with the students.

00:31:36.240 - 00:31:52.600

And we're kind of that bridge, we're that connecting piece between the classroom out there, the K-12 classroom, and academia, and sort of bridge that reality. And we are the people our students come to when they have

00:31:52.600 - 00:32:08.420

questions that are very real. We address things in a very practical manner and we deal with things in a very practical manner. We model constantly and we show constantly how, you know, you can

00:32:08.420 - 00:32:22.640

interact with students, high school students. We observe our students in the field, we talk to the mentor teachers and really do a lot of that coaching because all master teachers, right now it's two of us,

00:32:22.640 - 00:32:35.000

but we have the experience and the expertise to really guide our students from a very practical standpoint that complements everything that faculty does here on campus.

00:32:36.640 - 00:32:47.230

And we are with them. We know them very well. We already know our, you know, it's the second year and we really know our students quite well and we do have some

00:32:47.230 - 00:32:59.600

difficult conversations with them and we do have some very honest conversations with them about, you know, teaching is a lot of work. So if you can't do that kind of work now in your pre-service

00:32:59.600 - 00:33:12.870

program, what is going to change that, is going to make you successful down the road? So sometimes we have those conversations, other times it's simply bringing things in focus and asking questions about have

00:33:12.870 - 00:33:26.560

you thought about this, that and the other and coach them through some things. The final piece is an induction piece that the master teachers are also involved in and that is something that we here at Towson

00:33:26.560 - 00:33:39.340

have not finalized. We don't know yet what that is going to look like. We do know that it will be there so that critical period of when students graduate, enter the workforce, enter a classroom on

00:33:39.340 - 00:33:53.630

their own and have that first year to have support that is not district-based. So it's a more neutral zone. But at the same time, and these are things as I talked with

00:33:53.630 - 00:34:07.080

other massive teachers at other institutions, the really big benefit there is that we know our students. So when, you know, they have somebody come back, a graduate, and tells them, well, this isn't going well, or here's the

00:34:07.080 - 00:34:16.560

question. They can be so intentional in what it is that they provide for that student at that time depending on who that student is or now that teacher is.

00:34:17.840 - 00:34:35.520

So that has been a very important piece in the process of not only graduating students to become teachers, but to keep them beyond that first one, two, three, however many years. So let me understand this a little bit more clearly.

00:34:35.880 - 00:34:48.950

The first two years they're doing their general university requirements. They have already made clear that they would like to be part of UTeach, but they're not formally accepted to the

00:34:48.950 - 00:34:56.080

program. So the way it works, all our students have declared a major in mathematics or science. I see.

00:34:56.080 - 00:35:06.240

So they're math or science students, depending on which department. So some of them have declared a concentration in secondary education.

00:35:06.240 - 00:35:22.630

Some of them have not because those first two years, again, they might, especially that first year, they might just feel, well, I'm thinking about it, but I don't know. So our first two years are non-screened, but then our last two years are, in a

00:35:22.630 - 00:35:40.360

sense they are, you know, pretty much what everybody else does here in the preservice teacher programs, you have to apply, there have to be certain requirements that have to be met, GPA requirements and things like that.

00:35:40.640 - 00:35:50.180

So at that point that kicks in, the first two years are not screened because they are exploratory. Sure. So I assume that means they have to take some piece of Praxis

00:35:50.180 - 00:36:01.700

before they're admitted to the program. Yes, and they do that. So that's one of the things that is helpful for us because we know our students, we have them in classes, you know, the entire

00:36:01.700 - 00:36:14.880

time that we can make sure that they get on that. And that's part of that coaching piece of start to think about whether or not you want to do this in that second year where we have those conversations.

00:36:14.880 - 00:36:23.360

And we also have... This is the other nice piece, that we can tell our students, we know them, think about your GPA.

00:36:24.000 - 00:36:35.160

So you really have to think about your GPA because nothing magic is going to happen. So if this is something you want to pursue, you have to keep that in mind and plan for that.

00:36:35.560 - 00:36:48.690

And it is a rigorous program. It is a very rigorous program. Content courses are very demanding. Our courses are a lot of work because out of this eight semesters

00:36:48.690 - 00:37:03.000

here on campus, six they have a field component and the initial field components, the first four that they have are all in their spare time. So this does not happen during class.

00:37:03.000 - 00:37:14.400

They teach in between their own classes. So it is demanding and that's OK. It's work to be a teacher. So, and we try to... So it's many, many things

00:37:14.400 - 00:37:27.050

that we want them to experience, but we also, so they get to experience the work. They get to experience that whole stress of, Oh my goodness, now I'm standing in front of students and then they get to

00:37:27.050 - 00:37:40.960

experience the joy that comes with it and they just bubble over when they talk about it afterwards. So right now... The first students.... This is a new, relatively new program.

00:37:41.280 - 00:37:53.840

So the first students that have participated are finishing up their fourth semester. They're in their fourth semester right now. They've taught high school for the first time last week and

00:37:53.840 - 00:38:05.570

that was a big event and that was, it was great, and they did us proud. They did a good job. They... What I see happening is that my hope for them is that so

00:38:05.570 - 00:38:19.630

much of that nerve issue, of that confidence issue, they're working out now. They get that out of their system so that by the time they actually get to student teaching, they can focus more on

00:38:19.630 - 00:38:30.720

instruction and it's no longer... Some things become second nature. And I see their teacher personalities evolve and really they start to know who they are as teachers.

00:38:30.960 - 00:38:45.480

They start to connect with their strengths as teachers and their weaknesses and in their reflections, every time they teach or every time they observe, there's lots of observations that they do, they reflect on that and

00:38:45.480 - 00:38:57.240

really try to get to know themselves about who am I going to be as a teacher, who can I be as a teacher, and find that out, which is such a big part of it.

00:38:57.840 - 00:39:10.000

And so by the time I'm hoping they get to student teaching, they have so many of these things worked out because they've been in so many different classrooms and they've seen a vertical perspective.

00:39:10.400 - 00:39:16.320

They've seen... It's so interesting for me to hear when they come back from fifth grade. Oh my goodness, those kids are so smart.

00:39:16.760 - 00:39:21.640

I know they are. I know they are. So think about what they can do in middle school and then in high school.

00:39:22.000 - 00:39:31.800

So don't treat them like middle schoolers when you have them in high school. Wow. So how have things sort of shaken out at this point in

00:39:31.800 - 00:39:44.960

terms of these first students that are going through the program? What percentage do you think are actually going to declare the major, go through the process of applying and being accepted?

00:39:45.680 - 00:39:53.680

Very difficult to say. It's very difficult. So initially we tried to make those projections because we have to plan for those placements. Well, of course.

00:39:53.840 - 00:40:03.440

And so it's really... I feel like that's one of the harder things we're trying to accomplish is looking into that crystal ball and being able to say all of these things are going to happen.

00:40:04.640 - 00:40:12.480

You don't have any data yet, so how do you know? Percentage-wise, I don't have any hard numbers right now.

00:40:12.480 - 00:40:24.200

I wouldn't feel comfortable with putting that out. I think it's fair to say that in our first courses, we're probably losing about a third of our students for various reasons.

00:40:24.840 - 00:40:34.400

We also have students who fall in love with elementary school and then apply to the elementary school program. We have students who fall in love with middle school and then apply to the middle school program.

00:40:34.400 - 00:40:46.290

So that's kind of nice that they have those opportunities and can make that informed decision. So it's not, oh, I don't want to teach. It's just like, wow, I didn't know I could do this or I could

00:40:46.290 - 00:40:59.940

do that, and I have these options, which is really nice at Towson University. So we lose about a third. The ones that we have now, the ones that are now in their fourth semester seem to be a pretty

00:40:59.940 - 00:41:15.870

committed group. So I think that at this point they're putting in a lot of work and effort and time into what it is that they're doing. So I do think it's going to work out with that deciding year that

00:41:15.870 - 00:41:24.800

this really is the moment where... The third year, we call that the commit year. So that's the commitment. And then the fourth year is the complete year.

00:41:25.200 - 00:41:39.340

So it's that they're right between that decision and commit and making the decision right now. And the sense I'm getting from my students is that they are now comfortable and they're pursuing it, you know,

00:41:39.340 - 00:41:53.560

and going forward with that. I did not realize that UTeach is exclusively a secondary education program. Yes, it is. So, and as you suggested, maybe some of those people, potential

00:41:53.560 - 00:42:08.780

secondary STEM teachers are actually going to wind up in the elementary school or the middle school. Well, it's... The thing of it is, and again, I feel like it's a very difficult decision sometimes and I didn't realize

00:42:08.780 - 00:42:17.040

that before. I now have students who come... I had a student yesterday come to me and she told me she's having a midlife crisis.

00:42:17.560 - 00:42:30.300

She's 19. I said, OK, so what is happening to you is that you're simply questioning what you assumed were going to be your lifelong choices. So let's take a step back and do exactly what you need to

00:42:30.300 - 00:42:42.810

do in examining your choices. She never thought of elementary school as an option and is thinking about it now. So she's, this semester, middle school, and really

00:42:42.810 - 00:42:55.580

because she's a freshman, that decision does not have to be made immediately. So she has the time to make that decision. But by the time they do enter the program, our certification

00:42:55.580 - 00:43:07.840

is grades seven through twelve. That's the Maryland certification. But most of our teachers I expect to end up in high school. And how are you feeling about the program at this point?

00:43:07.840 - 00:43:22.000

Are you still excited or are you seeing things that you'd like to see done differently? Because this is a learning experience for everybody at Towson who's involved in UTeach.

00:43:22.240 - 00:43:36.400

So part of, again, considering myself incredibly fortunate and lucky is being able to come in at the beginning and being able to have a voice in what this is going to be. And with that comes ownership.

00:43:36.400 - 00:43:57.710

This is my baby and I strongly believe that this really works and really does do the things that it needs to do in terms of allowing students to make informed decisions in terms of opening up the profession, the STEM teaching profession to

00:43:57.710 - 00:44:15.520

more people, even though you may not have thought of it and explore it and seeing what happens there. So that part of it I thought I was going to like and I do believe it's working very, very well.

00:44:16.800 - 00:44:30.750

There are many things that I think are bonuses that I see in the program like that growth that happens instead of the growth happening over two years, the growth in establishing that teacher identity happens over four

00:44:30.750 - 00:44:38.560

years. There's a very strong community sense that our students share with each other. They get to know each other very well early.

00:44:39.600 - 00:44:54.090

It is just by the nature of the courses that they're taking, they're sequential, mostly sequential, that they end up in cohorts even though it doesn't have to be a cohort, but they sort of end up in cohort mentality and they really

00:44:54.090 - 00:45:05.960

provide a strong support net for each other, which is something that I didn't really, you know, appreciate before I saw it happening. There's a lot of work that has to be done still.

00:45:05.960 - 00:45:21.160

There's a lot of things questions we have to answer and figure out how are we going to do this because we haven't done the last two years, we haven't done the induction. I think that our timing, though, it's pretty good because the

00:45:21.160 - 00:45:32.260

world is changing. The world of education is changing, not just in Maryland, but in the whole country. And I feel like we are getting to see a little bit of what

00:45:32.260 - 00:45:45.610

those changes are going to involve and take that into account as we're shaping the program and as we are making some decisions for the program. How is it going to look like here in Maryland and things

00:45:45.610 - 00:46:00.080

like that. So I do see a big opportunity and a big responsibility to get it right and to, you know, make sure that we put those pieces in place now that are going to have that payoff for

00:46:00.080 - 00:46:04.240

our students down the road. So am I excited? Yes. I'm loving it.

00:46:05.680 - 00:46:15.520

I'm loving it. It's not just the right place for me, but I do think it's the right time for this program here in Maryland and I think it's the right time for our students, so...

00:46:15.760 - 00:46:29.480

And they like it. Well, we certainly will have to talk to you again in two years, maybe three. Maybe three. Because you're gonna do the induction year two and see what you think.

00:46:30.160 - 00:46:48.880

But UTeach has been in place long enough so that institutions in other states will have been through this whole process maybe several times, one or two times, whatever. And is there a group of people, UTeach people, who get

00:46:48.880 - 00:47:00.000

together regularly and talk about things? Surely you must have a convention or something. There is a convention every May in Austin, and I was there last year.

00:47:01.280 - 00:47:12.780

There is also a strong network between all the master teachers. There are master teachers' events that are geared toward the master teachers, where just master teachers... In January, there is a master teacher retreat where all the master

00:47:12.780 - 00:47:24.630

teachers get together. There are similar things for co- directors. There's a strong sense of community and I have found that every time I reach out, and I do reach out, there is tremendous

00:47:24.630 - 00:47:36.490

support. I get answers, I get support. And it's actually a really great event to be with master teachers because there are so many backgrounds and there's

00:47:36.490 - 00:47:48.720

such diversity and there is such wealth of experience and of knowledge, and it's a very rich environment to be in. And again, I feel like I learned a tremendous amount each and every time.

00:47:49.080 - 00:48:01.070

So that support is there. We get support from the institute. The institute is visiting us on a regular basis. So there is a close relationship in our first round of

00:48:01.070 - 00:48:12.640

implementation as we're going through this and trying to figure out, OK, so this works really great in Texas. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be just, you know, I can just take it and move it to Maryland.

00:48:13.000 - 00:48:26.240

But you know, what can we... What is it that is the essence of it that we really want to retain and then make that even better here for Maryland. So this is an ongoing adventure.

00:48:26.400 - 00:48:40.510

It will always be, no, it has to be. It has to be an ongoing and dynamic adventure in order to, you know, adjust to all the circumstances out there and really prepare our students for the classrooms as they're

00:48:40.510 - 00:48:54.310

going to be in two years. They're not really going to be the same in two years. Never, especially in the sciences and math. We always ask one last question and that's the kind of wisdom

00:48:54.310 - 00:49:08.880

you would share with individuals who are considering being in in the field of teaching, in education. You've had lots of experience. You came through an alternative pathway.

00:49:09.760 - 00:49:24.120

You've seen what Towson is doing. You certainly, as an instructional coach, was doing some sort of in-service support for teachers and certainly here you've had, as you said, some students who clearly know this

00:49:24.120 - 00:49:35.400

is what they want to do and some who have come to know this is not what they want to do. What advice would you share with someone who is interested in teaching?

00:49:36.480 - 00:49:56.510

To be honest to themselves and to allow for that exploration to take place first and then make a decision. And I think it's that honesty piece that is really important for both people, for those who decide to enter the profession

00:49:56.510 - 00:50:08.520

and for those who decide not to enter the profession, to give the profession the respect it deserves and look at it. What is involved? Teaching is so very difficult.

00:50:08.880 - 00:50:28.640

It is an art and it is science and it is incredibly complex. So knowing that, to allow yourself to think about all these different aspects that are right now observable and maybe not observable, and then be honest, do I really want this?

00:50:28.880 - 00:50:38.520

Because I think all of our students out there deserve a teacher who really wants to be a teacher and who wants to come to school every single day because they love what they do. We owe that to our students.

00:50:39.040 - 00:50:55.680

And that comes from a very personal and private place. So nobody can tell anybody that oh, you should or should not be a teacher and make that decision informed, whatever that means, whether that means going to a classroom for a while, whether

00:50:55.680 - 00:51:06.400

that means talking to students, whether that means talking to other teachers. But that piece has to be in place. And after that, find what works for you.

00:51:06.720 - 00:51:17.870

Find the way the love takes you. If it is secondary, there has to be a love for content. That passion has to be there. If I don't love my content, how can I expect my students to love

00:51:17.870 - 00:51:25.680

it? For other levels, there might be other things. So again, it's that being honest because as teachers, we can't fake it.

00:51:25.720 - 00:51:43.280

Our students see right through it and that's where things then get hard and demanding and difficult. So I would think that... And in that sense, that is really that fundamental piece of the UTeach piece of think about it.

00:51:43.560 - 00:51:54.680

What if? And I tell that student, what if you are the next super teacher and you don't know it and now thousands of kids don't have the opportunity to learn from you? What if, right?

00:51:54.880 - 00:52:02.800

What if Einstein had had a rotten teacher that didn't see potential? What if I have the next Einstein in class and don't recognize that?

00:52:03.480 - 00:52:12.960

So it's all of those things. So it's really a hard look inside first and then once that comes, go for it. It's doable.

00:52:13.040 - 00:52:21.630

It's absolutely doable. It's a lot of work, it's daunting, lots of things that have to happen. But if that passion is there, there is nothing else that is

00:52:21.630 - 00:52:34.440

going to fill that void. And that is going to bring that satisfaction that at the end of the day we have when we walk out from a classroom and talk about our kids because those are our kids.

00:52:34.440 - 00:52:46.180

And I see that in my students when they talk to each other. It takes one teaching experience. One. "My kids did this and that." So it really I think it's a little bit of soul searching,

00:52:46.180 - 00:53:02.550

being honest and then do what you have to do to get there and keep working hard on it. Christine, is there anything... There's one thing that I forgot and we should note it is that as of January, I understand

00:53:02.550 - 00:53:14.900

you are not just a master teacher, you are now serving as co-director of the program. I am So I should note that. And so those are probably... Some responsibilities have

00:53:14.900 - 00:53:33.760

shifted a little bit for you in that regard. They have and some of the things have just shifted. It's less of because some of the pieces of that role I did just because we were so small and I was alone as the master teacher.

00:53:34.000 - 00:53:49.500

But again, it is really a nice opportunity to kind of see bigger picture and build partnerships out in a bigger picture with the school districts and everything else. So it's a lot of fun. But that's a big piece,

00:53:49.500 - 00:53:55.400

building those partnerships. Yes, it's huge. It's huge. But that's what education is about.

00:53:55.800 - 00:54:08.210

And it is always a partnership. And when we talk to the mentor teachers and when we talk to our students, it is about students, it's about our students and it's about their students and it's about what's going to happen to

00:54:08.210 - 00:54:19.430

their students when our students graduate. So it really is, it has to be a partnership. We can't do it in isolation. And I do believe that exchange of information is absolutely

00:54:19.430 - 00:54:30.800

essential. And we start seeing that on our mentor teachers who work with us. And I'm really grateful because if you think about it, our

00:54:30.800 - 00:54:43.530

elementary school mentor teachers, most of our students are never going to teach elementary school. So what do they get out of it, right? And they're so dedicated to this program and they are so

00:54:43.530 - 00:54:56.480

dedicated to this is the right thing. This is what the students need to do. And it really is absolutely a partnership where we work together, closely together, and have many, many conversations.

00:54:56.760 - 00:55:07.330

And that is wonderful. It really is wonderful. And I do hope that we can build these partnerships, you know, with the different districts and principals and administrative

00:55:07.330 - 00:55:17.680

entities and everybody else that is involved in this whole entire endeavor. Sure. Is there anything that we've forgotten that you wanted to mention?

00:55:18.120 - 00:55:25.840

My goodness, I talk non-stop. I can't imagine. So there better not be anything. Well, I thank you very much for coming and sharing with us...

00:55:25.920 - 00:55:32.360

Thank you. ...what's an exciting new program at Towson University as well as for you. Yes, it is.

00:55:32.440 - 00:56:04.960

Thank you for having me. Thank you for allowing me to share. (music)