By Valerie Sliker, Courtesy Wagener Monthly; Pictured: Kaleb Shaw in a ALC middle school classroom.
Wagener Salley High School Teacher Cadets completed their classroom observations in November at Wagener-Salley high school, A. L. Corbett Middle and Busbee Elementary schools. In the Spring, students will choose in which classroom to conduct their field experience. Upon completion of the course, they will receive three college credits. Teacher Cadet is for Juniors and Seniors only and students must have at least a 3.5 gpa as well.
The Teacher Cadet program came out of Winthrop University 17 or 18 years ago, has spread to several more states.
Mrs. Stuart Crockett-Akins is the Family & Consumer Science and Teacher Cadet Instructor. She only has three teacher cadets this year, Jacob McGee, Kaleb Shaw and Westin Williams, all of which remain undecided about teaching. This is an outstanding class that more students should be encouraged to take.
“The class isn’t just for the teaching profession,” Akins explains. “We work from the ground up, what teaching entails, but not just teaching, also on what the school board officer does, we go to a school board meeting, and the cadets will meet with principals to learn about their profession. We talk about how even if you don’t go into education, how important education is and how to be vocal about education. The class is not just about teaching, it’s also about what education stands for. This class is good if students want to be involved in town politics, want to be on the school board, or just want to advocate for their own kids. Even if students don’t want to go into teaching, we want them to have a thinking knowledge about education and how to advocate for public education.”
The classroom observations enabled the cadets to see the range of education from K – 12 before they selected one for their field experience in January. The field experience consists of 25 days in the classroom for one period daily. Teacher cadets have to teach 3 lessons, write lesson plans to teach whatever grade level they choose.
Upon completing their classroom observations in all three schools, the boys began to favor the teaching profession. McGee prefers elementary and Williams prefers middle school.
After the boys observed a middle school class, Mrs. Hill-Davidson, A. L. Corbett Principal, had nothing but good things to say about the program. “It’s been an extremely beneficial, outstanding program; I love the teacher cadets. I’m a former teacher cadet, my son and daughter were both teacher cadets. It was part of why I chose education and why I’m still in education today twenty something years later.
“Having the teacher cadets here has been beneficial for both our faculty and staff as well as the teacher cadets. I’m hoping to get more of the cadets to go into education. Anything we can do here to support Wagener Salley High and to support education, we’re willing to do that.”