High Schoolers Grow Into Leaders of Tomorrow At Teaching Professions Academy

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.)

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