MenTeach E-News
June 2018
1) Scholarships for Minority Males in California
2) Helping a young children deal with fear of men teachers
3) A Class Debates the Importance of Having Male Teachers
4) Louisiana superintendent: More male teachers needed in classrooms
5) Report from the “KNIGHTS OF THE KIDS’ TABLE” Men in Early Childhood Education conference in Winnipeg, Canada
6) Community College to become new home for Troops to Teachers program in Florida
7) CSUN Accelerated Teacher Program Alum Wants to Serve as Role Model for Male Students
8) Southern University in Louisiana participates in initiative to increase qualified minority male teachers
9) Next up for men of color? A place at the front of the classroom.
10) Editorial – I survived – my first year of teaching
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1) Scholarships for Minority Males in California
Future Minority Male Teachers of California
What is F2MTC?
The goal of the F2MTC project is to improve the pipeline for male teachers of color throughout the California State University system so that elementary age students of color will have increased numbers of males of color serving as teachers, mentors and role models, thereby helping to close the persistent achievement gap between white students and students of color. Read the article to find out about scholarships: /node/3288
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2) Helping a young children deal with fear of men teachers
I have always loved playing with young children, especially infants and toddlers. However, when I was younger I never envisioned myself as a teacher. Many years ago, my good friends unexpectedly had colicky twins and they really needed help. That changed my life. That experience unintentionally lead me into teaching. Now it is one of my biggest passions. It is a huge part of my family life. My daughter and wife love my kids and know them almost as well as I do. I constantly appreciate how much my work enhances my personal life and my personal life enhances my work. Life is truly a circle, and every day I thank God for that. Read the editorial: /node/3316
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3) A Class Debates the Importance of Having Male Teachers
More than 40 percent of public school students in New York City are boys of color but very few of their teachers look like them. That discrepancy is one reason Aaron Harris is a teacher.
As an African-American male teacher, Harris said he wants to be a mentor to students in his English classes at the High School for Public Service: Heroes of Tomorrow. To do that, he needed a mentor, and that’s why he joined NYC Men Teach last year.
“It’s been the most integral part of why I’m still teaching,” he said.
NYC Men Teach paired him with a more experienced black male teacher at the Brooklyn school who gives him the support he then offers his own students. Since it was launched in 2015, the program played a part in hiring 646 male teachers of color for the 2016-2017 school year, according to the Department of Education. An additional 759 men of color are “in the pipeline” to become teachers in the next two years with support from the program. Read the article: /node/3318
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4) Louisiana superintendent: More male teachers needed in classrooms
Superintendent John White said Louisiana must recruit more men into the teaching profession and do more to ensure women have opportunities to advance.
The comments came at the opening session of the 2018 Teacher Leader Summit in New Orleans.
“We must see more women at the highest ranks of our profession,” White said. “A system, a profession, that is made up of 75 percent women cannot be run largely and exclusively by men. We must make that change.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 76 percent of public school teachers in the U.S. were female in the 2015-16 school year. The figure was similar in private schools, where about 75 percent of the teachers were female.
White also said teaching should be an “upwardly mobile” profession with opportunities for educators to become administrators or mentor teachers if they choose.
In addition, White said Louisiana must find a way to be more competitive when it comes to salaries. Louisiana often ranks near the bottom of teacher salary rankings among other states and regions. Read the article: /node/3323
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5) Report from the “KNIGHTS OF THE KIDS’ TABLE” Men in Early Childhood Education conference in Winnipeg, Canada
On a beautiful May 24, 2018, thirty eight (38) men and women spent the day together at the first ever Can Am Men in Early Childhood Educations (MECE) event.
Jodie Kehl, Executive Director of the Manitoba Child Care (MCCA), Don Giesbrecht, President of the Canadian Child Care Association (CCCF) and Michelle Steven-Wiens, acting Director of the Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care department all brought greeting to the group as we began the day together.
Frances Carlson, author and ECE trainer (Chattahoochee College, Georgia USA), our first speaker shared some of her research about the unique benefits that men often bring to the teaching profession These unique contributions help raise the quality of programs for both boys and girls. As a group, she often observes men bringing a lot of positive touch into the lives of children, which has a very positive impact on the levels of violence and aggression young children show in their preschool years. For men this positive touch often comes in the form of rough and tumble play, chasing and play fighting. She was also quick to share that men can also be very tender and compassionate caregivers and children need to see this modeled for them as well. Read more about the conference: /node/3329
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6) Community College to become new home for Troops to Teachers program in Florida
Tallahassee Community College and the Florida Department of Education have announced a new partnership to bring the Troops to Teachers program back to Florida.
Troops to Teachers is a nationwide program designed to help transitioning service members and veterans begin new careers as K-12 school teachers.
In Florida, the Troops to Teachers program previously operated through a partnership with Florida Atlantic University, but the partnership ended in November, 2016 and the program is currently dormant in the Sunshine State. Read the article: /node/3331
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7) CSUN Accelerated Teacher Program Alum Wants to Serve as Role Model for Male Students
Thomas Johnson III knows he’s been lucky to have great mentors — adult role models who taught him how to succeed. After graduating from California State University, Northridge and preparing to embark on a career in education, he’s eager to serve as a mentor for the next generations of students.
In May, Johnson ’13 (Music), ’18 (Teaching Credential) completed the Accelerated Collaborative Teacher (ACT) Preparation Program in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education. This fall he will start teaching sixth-grade core math and science at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s first all-boys academy, the new Boys Academic Learning Academy of Los Angeles, on the campus of Washington Preparatory High School. An African-American male, Johnson said he’s excited to serve as a role model for a student body he estimates will be 75 percent African-American and 25 percent Latino. Read the article: /node/3324
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8) Southern University in Louisiana participates in initiative to increase qualified minority male teachers
The School of Education at Southern University is one of four teacher education programs across the country selected to participate in the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) Project Pipeline Repair (Project PR): Restoring Minority Male Participation and Persistence in Teacher Education. The purpose of the project is to recruit minority males in the 11th grade that have a keen interest in becoming a teacher.
SHEEO was awarded a three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fund Project PR. The project will engage state policy leaders, educator preparation programs at HBCUs, and partner schools to achieve goals and objectives of the $1.5 million award. Read the story: /node/3333
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9) Next up for men of color? A place at the front of the classroom.
Principal Damon Smith remembers a time when his students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts had a black principal, black assistant principal, black mayor, black governor, and black president – all at the same time. But he sees a need for black men to push open the door to the next frontier: the kindergarten classroom.
“We need more practitioners of color, particularly black male teachers, in our classes K-12.” he explains in his office on a recent afternoon. “President Obama is just a step. It shows you what is possible,”
His school district has made teacher diversity a priority in recent years. Ahead of this past school year, Cambridge Public Schools had 89 job openings, 44 percent of which were filled by people of color. For the coming school year, more than 44 percent of new hires for the high school alone will be people of color, according to district officials. Read the report: /node/3337
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10) Editorial – I survived – my first year of teaching
Much like the chaos of a zombie apocalypse, a new teacher’s first year in the classroom can be stressful and overwhelming. There are swarms of elementary students asking to go to the bathroom, help with homework, and continuous requests to borrow a pencil. Luckily, I survived.
My first year of teaching took place at my own alma mater in Saint Croix Falls, Wisconsin. I had the privilege to teach 3rd grade as the 5th section teacher. My job subjects included: Math, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Science, and Social Studies. I also had the opportunity outside of the classroom helping with recess duty every Thursday at 9:45 AM. Alongside teaching, I coached the following three sports: middle school football, high school wrestling, and middle school track.
Being immersed in my first teaching role, the same questions always seemed to work their way into conversations within the community. “So, do you really like teaching?” “How do you handle all of those young kids?” “No but really, how do you like it?” Now, I assume those are questions that most new teachers new to the profession experience. However, I continue to draw on inner dialogue evaluating if my female counterpart receives the same rigorous questioning. Read the editorial: /node/3321
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