Posted on Apr 26, 2023
As teacher shortages loom, one district grows future educators in high school
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https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/ [login to see] /teacher-shortage-solution-middle-school
Something remarkable is happening at Nora Forester Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, in teacher Patrice Bravo's STEM lab — a wonderland of technicolor gears, tools and laboratory doo-dads, all overseen by STEM's playful patron saint: Albert Einstein, poking out his tongue from a poster on the back wall.
"If the wind is going against your hand, what's your hand going to do?" Bravo asks, blowing dramatically against her open, upright hand. Today's lesson: aerodynamics.
"The wind is strong! It makes your hand go 'Whoa!,' like this." Her hand quivers like a sail. "But! If your hand is like this," she asks, pointing it into the wind, "like an airplane wing?"
The second-graders giggle and chirp their predictions.
Bravo asks student Christopher Olivarez to help by being the wind, and together they perform a playful duet between wind and wing, student and teacher.
Something remarkable is happening at Nora Forester Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, in teacher Patrice Bravo's STEM lab — a wonderland of technicolor gears, tools and laboratory doo-dads, all overseen by STEM's playful patron saint: Albert Einstein, poking out his tongue from a poster on the back wall.
"If the wind is going against your hand, what's your hand going to do?" Bravo asks, blowing dramatically against her open, upright hand. Today's lesson: aerodynamics.
"The wind is strong! It makes your hand go 'Whoa!,' like this." Her hand quivers like a sail. "But! If your hand is like this," she asks, pointing it into the wind, "like an airplane wing?"
The second-graders giggle and chirp their predictions.
Bravo asks student Christopher Olivarez to help by being the wind, and together they perform a playful duet between wind and wing, student and teacher.
As teacher shortages loom, one district grows future educators in high school
Posted from npr.org
San Antonio
Teaching
Education
Children
Posted 1 y ago
Responses: 2
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Today's experiment could be tomorrow's solution
Back in Mrs. Bravo's classroom, in a quiet moment between periods, Bravo reveals this is actually the second time she's taught Christopher Olivarez. Long before he was her student teacher, he was here as a kindergartener.
CAST Teach students (from left) Christopher Olivarez, Isabel Tate, Samantha Lopez, Heather Faulkner and Jayanne Garza stand for a portrait in the Forester Elementary atrium in February.
CAST Teach students (from left) Christopher Olivarez, Isabel Tate, Samantha Lopez, Heather Faulkner and Jayanne Garza stand for a portrait in the Forester Elementary atrium in February.
"I remember where he sat. He was close to the door, 'cause he was actually really quiet in school," Bravo says.
As a new class of kids pours in, she pauses and smiles.
"That's one of the things I love about teaching. It's not just about telling kids things. It's pulling out the best in them. And when I get to see it full-circle, teaching is one of the best careers."
The district acknowledges this new teaching high school is still an experiment. But just as Mrs. Bravo watched Christopher grow from a quiet kindergartener into a confident, hands-on student teacher, so too may today's experiment grow into tomorrow's solution."
..."Today's experiment could be tomorrow's solution
Back in Mrs. Bravo's classroom, in a quiet moment between periods, Bravo reveals this is actually the second time she's taught Christopher Olivarez. Long before he was her student teacher, he was here as a kindergartener.
CAST Teach students (from left) Christopher Olivarez, Isabel Tate, Samantha Lopez, Heather Faulkner and Jayanne Garza stand for a portrait in the Forester Elementary atrium in February.
CAST Teach students (from left) Christopher Olivarez, Isabel Tate, Samantha Lopez, Heather Faulkner and Jayanne Garza stand for a portrait in the Forester Elementary atrium in February.
"I remember where he sat. He was close to the door, 'cause he was actually really quiet in school," Bravo says.
As a new class of kids pours in, she pauses and smiles.
"That's one of the things I love about teaching. It's not just about telling kids things. It's pulling out the best in them. And when I get to see it full-circle, teaching is one of the best careers."
The district acknowledges this new teaching high school is still an experiment. But just as Mrs. Bravo watched Christopher grow from a quiet kindergartener into a confident, hands-on student teacher, so too may today's experiment grow into tomorrow's solution."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel We started a new program last year to try to address the teacher shortage. The TAPS program (Teaching as a Profession). Sadly, many of my former students tell me they are only taking the class because it's an easy credit but who knows they may decide to go into teaching anyways. If someone told me I was going to be a teacher when I was in high school I would have looked at them and said they were nuts. I remember going to DeVry I would help my buddies with their electronics and electronics with applied math. They told me I was going to be a teacher. I told them they were f*cknig nut. No F*cking way would I EVER become a teacher. Eight years later I started teaching electronics to high school kids. You never know what will happen in the future even if you think you do today!
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