The academy system has allowed students in the teaching as a profession (TAP) pathway at Bearden to experience new opportunities.
Bearden became a member of the 865 Academies system two years ago. This new setup has allowed students to pick a career focus by choosing a pathway for their classes based on careers they are interested in.
“It really helped me understand just the vast differentiation that can occur just within one subject,” TAP teacher Mrs. Anna Graham said.
The teaching as a profession program has been one of many pathways that is a part of the academies. TAP has given students unique opportunities that they would not be able to get from just any class.
Students in the pathway have had access to opportunities such as helping at other local schools based on the level of the class they are in.
“I’ve always wanted to teach kindergarten, so this is the perfect opportunity,” said junior Kelsi Wright, who is in the first class of the TAP program.
The classes dive in-depth into topics that help students learn how to get better at specific activities that teachers do everyday.
“We learned a lot about effective teacher traits and effective lectures, classroom environments, and we talked a lot about respect too and how it goes both ways,” Wright said. “We learned how to read a kid’s book correctly and how to keep everybody engaged in it.”
Students in the TAP program also go to teach at local schools to get real world experience in the teaching field specific to what they want to teach.
“TAP 1 has traditionally gone to an elementary school experience, and we partner with Rocky Hill Elementary for that,” Mrs. Graham said. “TAP 2 goes to a middle school experience and we partner with West Valley for that, and then TAP 3 is work-based learning so the student gets to choose whatever grade level they want to teach, even if it’s high school.”
Working in the schools gives students the opportunity to make bonds with students and their classes while learning how to teach them better.
“We all get our own teacher and our own class,” Wright said. “I feel like having just your one class, you get to learn how that environment is, you get to learn how to deal with the certain group of kids and have certain rules for them.”
Not only do the students at Rocky Hill, West Valley, and other schools learn from TAP class members, but the members learn from the students they are teaching as well.
“There’s so much I can learn from this class really,” Wright said. “I’m literally being taught how to be a teacher.”
Added Mrs. Graham: “I think TAP specifically is giving students way more experience in high school with teaching than they would get traditionally.”
Since the TAP program is fairly new, it doesn’t have many students in the higher classes, but it is expected to grow drastically as it continues to leave its mark at Bearden.
“We’re growing the program,” Mrs. Graham said. “So we need all kinds of students that think they might want to teach.”