CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Some local high school students are getting a head start learning how to become teachers.
It’s a relatively new class Clayton County Public Schools is offering to students. It’s called Teaching as a Profession. The district says the goal of the class is to prepare students who want to become teachers and also help fill a teacher shortage that’s pervasive around the country.
Channel 2′s Tom Jones sat in on teacher Cornelius George’s class at North Clayton High recently.
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“Ya’ll are all working on teaching strategies,” George told the engaged and vibrant students. He peppered them with different scenarios about learning techniques and strategies. “Is it teacher-focused or student-focused?” he asked.
The students were laser-focused and eager to learn. “I think it’s amazing. He makes students feel welcome,” 10th grader Shelia-Renae Archibald said.
“Can you learn swimming from an instruction manual?’ George inquired. “No. No,” his class shouted in unison.
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George, who is also a comedian, uses every tool in his toolbox to teach students how to use diverse learning strategies. His comedic takes puts students at ease. “Go somewhere? You going somewhere. You going to sleep without dinner but you gonna be sore,” he joked.
He says the class has one main goal. “To encourage students to go into the field of education. As you know there is a teacher shortage across the country. Everything you see on social media and the news is what a hard time teachers are having.”
He uses several techniques to get students to learn. His Improv skits are popular with students. The skits require class participation. And even reporter participation. Like when a student taught Jones how to learn to swim, not from a book, but through demonstration. “We go this way or this way?” Jones asked, as a student tried to teach him to swim. The exercise taught students while some instruction can be done by reading a book, other instruction requires demonstration.
It’s that type of participatory learning that delights students. “I love how we can learn and have fun at the same time,” student Doshe’lyn Bester said. “It’s never boring in here. At all.”
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George says he’s not just teaching students how to become teachers. He says he’s teaching them the value of teaching others no matter what line of work they choose. “They might be on a job where they are sharing the knowledge they have. So they’re gonna be a teacher regardless. “They’re students now but at some point in life they’re going to be a teacher. Whether they are teaching their little brother or sister. Rather they are running a company. or manager. They’re gonna be teaching somebody something.
Students appreciate how George creates an environment that opens their minds to different ways of learning. And different methods of teaching. “It feels like every day we learn something new,” student Steeve Alexis said.
Some students see the class as a stepping stone to a career in teaching. “I want to be a teacher to like, help students,” Shelia-Renae said.
Others have no plans to teach. “But I can see how it can help me say like a field of management. Then I could teach the people under me,” student Kesara Addison said.
Principal James Scarborough says the class is about giving students a foundation to build on. “Growing your own. Showing them the value of, not only education, but the value of teachers.”
“I just want them to be productive members of society. I want them to go change their community like I’m changing mine,” George said.
The school also wants students who become teachers to return and teach at the school. Right now 8 teachers returned to teach at North Clayton High. “The message that we put out is to give back. Come back home and give it back to the generation below us,” Assistant Principal Cedric Howard said.
George keeps a cap and gown hanging on the wall in class. He wants students to see where they can go. “I tell them from day one I don’t care if they become a teacher or not because they are always going to be a teacher. Their job is to give back the knowledge that you have.”
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