Students Like
Brandi Norman Grow Into Classroom Leaders
In Great
Oaks’ Teaching Professions Academy
MILFORD,
Ohio—February
27, 2015—When the snow finally stops dropping and the temperatures begin to
stay above freezing on a regular basis, Great Oaks Career Development Campuses
will be wrapping up another successful year of training the teachers of
tomorrow.
“Great Oaks’ Teaching Professions Academy (TPA)
programs are flourishing and our kids are proof!” says Jenn Norsworthy, a
satellite instructor for the program for juniors and seniors at Milford High
School.
The TPA program is
designed for those students who are seeking a career as educators in schools
and will continue on a collegiate path to secure teaching licenses. Students in
the program can earn college credit at all public Ohio universities upon
passage of the state portfolio for the Introduction to Education course that is
mandatory for all education majors.
“TPA programs from Milford,
Anderson and Turpin have all been chosen as break out presenters at the FEA
National Conference 2015 and I could not be more proud,” says Norsworthy. “Great
Oaks programs will be on display for all to see and bring honor and acclaim as
a result of the students’ hard work!”
FEA is the Future
Educators Association, a national student organization dedicated to supporting
young people interested in education-related careers. “The TPA programs at Great
Oaks are without a doubt making an impact in the FEA arena and I am honored to
be on this team,” says Norsworthy. “Watching students grow from students to
leaders before my very eyes is truly an experience I cannot put into words.”
One
student who has done just that is Milford senior Brandi Norman, who Norsworthy
says “pretty much runs the entire” TPA Whiz Kids weekly tutoring program for
first through third graders at Mulberry Elementary in Milford. The after school
tutoring program for high-risk students was started by the Milford TPA this
school year.
The targeted curriculum
is designed to increase reading ability in students behind at a young age to
counteract the negative impacts poor reading ability can have in later years
academically.
This
Whiz Kids site was created in collaboration with Milford Schools, Eastside
Christian Church and City Gospel Mission of Cincinnati.
Norman prepares
tutoring materials for each of her fellow student and adult tutors and also
analyzes improvements in their students’ reading ability. “Brandi volunteers at
least five hours per week just preparing for each week's session,” says
Norsworthy. “The other tutors put in at least an hour and a half of actual
tutoring and preparation time each week.”
To prepare for this
program, Norsworthy said 15 seniors received three hours of training on the
reading curriculum and many students had an additional three hours of training
on the impact poverty has on education.
“I do it for the love
of the kids,” says Norman. “I know some teachers like to teach for the love of
the subject or for the school system, but I like being there for the kids.”
Mulberry principal Brian
Zawodny considers the program a win-win. "While this is a great
opportunity for some of our high school students, our students at Mulberry are
the real winners,” Zawodny says.
Norman said her parents
did not go to college but her experience through the TPA program at Milford and
a push from her mom convinced her to pursue her early childhood education
degree at Bowling Green (Ohio) State University after graduation.
“My mom said I needed
to figure out what I wanted to do and said I would be a good teacher because I
am so patient,” says Norman.
She would highly recommend
her two years in the Great Oaks’ teaching professions program because she has
had more hands-on experience and teachers that “pushed me outside my comfort
zone.”
Juniors in the TPA programs
at Great Oaks’ schools focus on a teaching curriculum and the Ohio Department
of Education Teaching Standards while seniors focus on the senior writing
portfolio and internships in local schools that Norsworthy says allows them to
see a classroom from a different perspective and determine if a teaching career
could be right for them.
(Photo cutline:
Mulberry Elementary second graders, left to right, Maddox Smithson, Logan
Sadler and James Swick with tutor Brandi Norman.)
-GOCDC-
