The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘An unusual situation’
Learning to be a teacher during a pandemic
Matt McAloon expected to complete his journey to teacher certification in Milford, the town where he grew up and where he had served as a teaching internship.
But like so much of 2020, it was not to be.
Sometime before McAloon’s 10-week stint as a student teacher was to begin this fall — a required part of the licensing process in Connecticut — the Sacred Heart University student got the news that Milford would take a pass this fall on allowing student teachers in schools.
“Given this year’s environment due to COVID-19, the district decided to forgo having new student teachers serve in our schools this fall,” Milford Schools Superintendent Anna Cutaia said in a written statement. “We hope we will be able to bring additional student teachers back in the Spring, as long as the health and safety levels of our community warrant that change.”
Milford is not alone. Districts across the state have adjusted or modified placements with teacher prep programs as they try to grapple with educating students through a pandemic.
In 2019-20, the state issued 1,274 initial educator certificates to Connecticut
Education Preparation Program participants, state officials said. The number of graduates coming out of the state’s traditional and alternate teacher prep programs has been dropping for some time. In 20092010, just shy of 2,000 students left those programs with teaching degrees compared to 1,394 in 2015-16, according to a state report.
No one can say if the pandemic will make things worse but many are willing to bet that the new teachers that emerge from the pan
demic will come equipped with a unique skill set.
“It’s quite an unusual situation,” said Stephen Hegedus, dean of the College of Education at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. “You are with a teacher in an empty classroom, talking to kids virtually. It’s quite bizarre. We will look back at these times and go ‘Wow.’ ”
At a recent virtual meeting, Chris Todd, a bureau chief in the talent office of the state Department of Education, told a state Board of Education subcommittee that the spring collapse of clinical placements for teachers in training when the pandemic hit is still in recovery mode.
For the fall, the state restored a 10-week student teaching requirement for licensure that had been suspended when schools closed for in-person learning in March.
Official scoring of a three-part portfolio assessment tool used for teacher credentialing, meanwhile,
remains on hold. Part of the task requires student teachers to film themselves teaching students in person. Virtual experiences are not allowed to get the portfolio scored by Pearson, an assessment service.
Violet Jiménez Sims, associate director of teacher education for School-University Partnership at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, agrees that this year is certainly different.
Over the summer, UConn met with partner districts to map out clinical placements. The first thing they learned: not everyone’s definition of hybrid is the same.
“Some were pivoting from inperson to virtual learning and grappling with how many individuals would be allowed in classrooms,” Sims said.
Sims said UConn lost no partner districts — they work regularly with nine as well as others — but said adjustments were made to the number of weekly internship hours UConn requires. Instead of 18 hours, fifth-year students now must complete only 12
hours.
UConn still requires a portfolio including a video of the candidate teaching but instead of sending it out to Pearson for grading, it is critiqued internally.
An adjustment for sure, but Sims said students are still practicing all the skills they have learned, plus are getting a grounding in the way teaching could look moving forward.
“More technology, more communication with families, that is not going away,” Sims added.
An abrupt shift to the future
Michael Alfano, dean of the College of Education at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield said this year’s student teacher candidates are getting schooled in multi-tasking.
“It much more complicated than the traditional experience,” Alfano said.
Michelle Filippone, a Sacred Heart student doing her student teaching at Naugatuck High School, said she can vouch for that.
“A lot of people ask me if its tough,” Filippone said. “I don’t feel I am at a disadvantage. Pandemic or not, everything is brand new to me. Everything is exciting and different.”
If she is missing out on anything, it is not having a classroom full of students to manage.
“I don’t have a ton of kids in front of me,” said Fippone, who will become a biology teacher. “The kids I do (have), know they have to sit in their chairs.”
For McAlloon, who ended up at Booth Hill School in Shelton, student teaching during a pandemic has forced him to make the most of every minute.
“There is early dismissal, so there is less time for lessons,” McAloon said. “You still have to get the material across.”
Planning periods are shorter, meaning less time for classroom teachers to plan and collaborate with their colleagues.
McAloon misses seeing kids’ faces.
“Masks can be distracting,” McAlloon said. “You can’t get a sense of their level of engagement.”
On the flip side, he has a cooperating teacher he said is quite appreciative of his ability to create engaging Power Point presentations on Google Classroom.
At Southern, Angela Todaro, coordinator of teaching partnerships with area school districts, said there are 63 candidates placed in 27 school districts.
New Haven, Southern’s largestplacing district, kept all of its student teaching slots this fall but also is fully remote. Student teacher candidates work in empty classrooms with supporting teachers. The class is taught through computer screens into homes.
Two districts — Milford and Oxford — told Southern early on they could not accommodate student teachers this fall. That gave Southern time to place those students elsewhere.
Hegedus, who is also president of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, said he remains positive. His organization advocates for 14 teacher-training programs in the state.
“When the shutdown occurred, we built contingency plans,” Hegedus said. “It is different. It is not the same. But these are still authentic learning experiences.”
For his part, Todd, with the state, said his message to school districts was that it is in their best interest to support the next generation of educators and their future workforce.
Just happy to be in the home stretch
Michael Ayala, a Sacred Heart student doing his student teaching at Fairfield Warde High School, said the experience may be not what he imagined it would be but has not made him want to be a biology teacher any less.
He is grateful the state waived scoring of the portfolio assessment.
“That way I can focus on what I am doing for students,” Ayala said. “Not on working for a good score.”
Annie Rosa, another Sacred Heart education major who is a student teacher at North Street School in Greenwich, agreed.
“Not having to spend the $300 (on what the test would have cost) is a big relief,” said the Wilton resident. “Instead of focusing on me, I can focus on the children.”
Rosa said even without being required to produce the portfolio, she has worked on improving teaching skills all along.
Alfano said the portfolio scoring, though not required in Connecticut, is still available for teaching candidates who plan to get an out-of-state teaching licenses. About half of Sacred Heart’s education majors are not from Connecticut.
“They are still being exposed to the breath and depth of the experience,” Alfano said.
At UConn, where there are 350 juniors, seniors and fifth-year students completing internships and student teaching, Sims said it is not clear how the situation will change in the spring.
“We have to wait and see what education will look like,” Sims said. Whatever we have been doing up until now has to be reconsidered. I don’t see us going back to exactly what teaching and learning was.”