Future Teachers

Starting KNEA Future Teacher Chapters

If your local is interested in starting a future teacher chapter, email futureteachers@knea.org.

The KNEA plans to set up pilot programs in selected school districts. The characteristics of the school districts the work team intends to target will include those with a high minority population, interest at both the middle and high school levels, access to a KNEA student chapter, and a supplemental contract in place for the chapter sponsor.

KNEA plans to sponsor a round table to share the best practices of successful chapters with pilot district personnel.
Invitees will include sponsors from current programs, higher education student chapter sponsors, administrators and local leaders from districts interested in starting future teacher chapter.

KNEA grants will help initiate a program and fund attendance to upcoming conferences.

The KNEA Future Teacher Chapters program is targeting high minority districts because teachers are role models. Children should at least see a teacher that looks like them in the first 13 years they attend school.

Ethnic minorities actually make up the majority of students in many of our districts. These districts are the logical place to recruit the ethnic minority teachers of the future, Blaufuss added.

Background

Kansas public schools have traditionally possessed a key element of great schools for every child: a caring, competent, and qualified teacher in every classroom. A growing teacher shortage has put at risk the right of every Kansas student to attend a great public school.

Part of KNEA's answer is to recruit the best and brightest to the profession. KNEA is creating Future Teacher Chapters and is collaborating with other organizations, especially the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE).

A work team of KNEA staff have worked on this issue for over two years. In addition to reviewing the latest research and strategies, they surveyed members in the KNEA Student Program and the Higher Education Task Force, among others, and met or worked with career counselors at the high school and college levels.

Three conclusions have emerged as a result of KNEA's work:

The reasons mentioned most frequently by student members for going into education are altruistic, i.e., to make a difference, to change the world.

Just because someone has been in a classroom as a student, does not mean they know how to teach or what teaching really entails.

To attract young men and women to the profession, future teacher chapters are needed as early as middle schools - high school can be too late.
KNEA's research shows a growing number of middle-high school students are not choosing teaching as a profession.

"If we are to attract the brightest to the profession, regardless of age, we must start early," said Marjie Blaufuss, who chairs the KNEA work team coordinating the future teacher project.

"We have the advantage of having the next generation of teachers in our midst every day," she said. "Middle school is not too early to create opportunities for young people to experience the joy of helping someone grasp a new concept or learn new material."

Middle schools are the perfect places for future teacher clubs that show students what it's like to positively affect someone's life (even if it is just helping a first grader learn to read or assisting with a field day) and to show what resources are available from Kansas colleges and universities (dorms, classrooms, scholarships, etc.).

Preparation is necessary to give future teachers early and many opportunities to experience what is needed to be successful. That includes classroom management skills, the emotional roller coaster teaching can take you on, the investment of time, the need for high expectations for all students, cultural do's & don'ts, etc.

"We want them to know it can be fun, too," she added.

There are programs for high school students, such as the State Department of Education's Teaching/Training Pathway curriculum. The students who finish the program in high school have a much more realistic attitude about teaching as a profession and strongly support education.

The National Education Association (NEA) started Future Teachers of America (FTA) and/or Future Educators of America (FEA) programs in the early 1900s. Other organizations have taken over sponsorship in some states.

FTA/FEA clubs assist middle and high school students in exploring teaching as a career choice, provide a realistic understanding of teaching and encourage students from diverse backgrounds to think seriously about the teaching profession.

FTA/FEA academies integrate a structured curriculum with classroom-based activities to prepare high school students for college teacher preparation programs.