Teacher shortage: 3 new local programs blaze new pathways to teacher certification in Pittsburgh
Kidsburgh - How will Pennsylvania solve its critical teacher shortage?
The state saw its largest single-year loss of teachers in 2023 and these losses continue. But while we know that finding new ways to attract and empower future educators is crucial, we also know that filling classrooms with well-trained, mission-driven teachers isn’t easy.
It’s a challenge that requires innovative problem-solving and plenty of creative collaboration.
With that in mind, Remake Learning has awarded new Moonshot Grants to three pilot programs — each leveraging the power of collaboration, creative thinking and new approaches to apprenticeship in order to help people become certified as specialized educators.
These future educators include everyone from gifted dancers and eager high schoolers to experienced welders. Their paths have been different. But all are gaining skills to become effective teachers in Pennsylvania’s classrooms.
“Teaching is an adaptive practice, and the pathways that educators can take to become certified in addressing special needs should be adaptive, as well,” says Tyler Samstag, executive director at Remake Learning.
“These Moonshot Grant projects prioritize practical qualifications, direct field experience, and collaborative mentorship, which will help teachers to better meet the diverse needs of students in terms of their mental health, physical needs, and desire for creative expression,” Samstag says.
Here are the programs that are making this progress happen:
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Making Dance a Cornerstone of Active Learning
Pittsburgh’s Attack Theatre has spent three decades sharing the principles of “embodied learning” — using movement and dance as a tool to help teachers more effectively deliver curriculum.
Through their new Moonshot-grant funded project, “we want that tool to be shared,” says dancer Kaitlin Dann, who serves as artistic and administrative associate at Attack Theatre.
“We’ve been doing this for so long, and we have these amazing workshops and residencies, and we do professional development,” Dann says. “But we’re thinking, how can this become even more readily accessible?”
Dance, she says, is “something you can use as a conduit to deliver information” while also building connection and cooperation between students and teachers.
“We get to share this with dancers who maybe didn’t even know that they could use dance and movement this way,” Dann says, “And then there’s people who have never moved before in their life, who have no idea how to make a dance, and we’re showing that it’s much more accessible than they could ever imagine.”
To accomplish this, Dann and Attack Theatre’s arts education manager, Brit Tague, are working with Seton Hill University to develop a new talent pipeline where people can earn certification in PreK-12 dance education.
They are also partnering with Hempfield Area School District, which has created a pipeline giving high-schoolers apprenticeship training and the chance to earn college credits toward an education degree through the Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center.
This multipronged effort will help high schoolers begin their training as future teachers who understand the power of dance and movement, while also giving hands-on experience to university dance majors who are committed to working as educators.
During a pilot program this fall, Hempfield Area high schoolers and Seton Hill dance majors will learn from the Attack Theatre team about using dance and movement while working as student teachers at Hempfield Area’s Stanwood Elementary School.
“We’re creating this one-of-a-kind residency, highlighting our best attributes that we could bring to the classroom,” Tague says. “It’s really lovely to see it sort of blossoming right in front of us.”
Through a separate grant, the team is also creating a digital library of training for future teachers to use.
“People believe dance is something that’s inaccessible. It’s on stage. It’s far away,” Dann says. “We are challenging the notion that dance is just for some people, and it’s just for some bodies.”
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