Most students will sign up for any class that will give them the opportunity to go on a field trip twice a week and take a break from school, although the field trips taken by the students who enroll in the Teachers for Tomorrow program aren’t necessarily considered “breaks.”

In the Teachers for Tomorrow program, the students who enroll in the class travel to different schools and assist a teacher in class for 9 weeks, 2 days a week. The first two weeks, the students observes the teacher they are assisting and the final 7 weeks they help their teacher teach daily lessons.

“Depending on the teacher they have depends on how they will teach the lesson,” says Mrs. Harris who leads the Teachers for Tomorrow program here at Tunstall.

Rebecca Scarce, who assists at Twin Springs Elementary School at the kindergarten level, helps her teacher grade papers and also helps special needs children understand their work. “You have to have a passion for it,” says Scarce about teaching her kindergarten class. This program gives students who are considering becoming a teacher the opportunity “to really be involved in a classroom,” Scarce says.

Before entering a class room, the students in this program had to first learn about the development stages of a child and must come to understand how children learn. After learning how a child’s brain and body develops, the students are ready to enter the classroom.

“All children are different,” says Mrs. Harris. “You have to learn to appreciate that child individually and teach them individually.”

To begin enrolling in education classes in college, the student is first required to pass the Core Academic Skills for Educators test, or the PRAXIS I exam. This test covers the basic things learned in high school; such as math, reading, and English. Normally this test would cost a student $150 to take, here at Tunstall the test is offered for free to students enrolled in the Teachers for Tomorrow program.

Although this program is a one semester class this year at Tunstall, it will be offered next school year at VoTech as a two semester class where the benefits will be the same.