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EHE News

Transition to Teaching Project now recruiting teachers

Belinda Gimbert

Belinda Gimbert

Have you always wanted to be a teacher, but the timing in your career just wasn't right?

Do you know someone who wants to be a teacher and just hasn't had the chance?

Now may be the right time to make the move.

The college's Project KNOTtT is recruiting high-quality professionals with bachelor's degrees who want to become teachers in high-need subjects at participating school districts.

KNOTtT, which stands for Kansas, Nevada, Ohio Texas Transition to Teaching, is directed by Assistant Professor Belinda Gimbert, School of Educational Policy and Leadership. The project concentrates on the seven subject areas experiencing the most teacher shortages. They are: mathematics, science, English and language arts, social studies, foreign languages, English as a second language and special education.

Science teacher and principal find ideal match

Robert Chenault of Centerville, Ohio, spent the majority of his career in pharmaceutical sales and sales management, supported by his bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in business. The fit was perfect, but the economy refused to cooperate.

"I was a top performer, but I experienced no less than four downsizings and restructurings during the late 1990s and early 2000s," Chenault says. "After my last downsizing, I decided to do what I always wanted to do, and that is to teach."

Principal Amy Doerman desperately needed a 7th- and 8th- grade science teacher for Dayton View Academy, an independently run K-8 public school in Ohio.

"Finding highly qualified middle school science teachers is extremely difficult. There are few applicants," she explains. "Teaching science is an art. It takes a special blend of subject area expertise, sound pedagogy and strong classroom management, especially for activities like hands-on experiments. Many times, applicants will be strong in one of these areas but lack in the others."

Chenault and Doerman found each other when he applied to Dayton View Academy online. The school invited him to interview and to teach a demonstration lesson in the classroom he now occupies.

That's when Dayton View hired Chenault, and he gained the support of KNOTtT, which supports an alternative pathway to teacher licensure.

"We were very excited to find a candidate with strong content knowledge and inherent creativity with hands-on activities," says Doerman. "We knew he could learn pedagogy and pursue licensure through Project KNOTtT during his first year of teaching. We were confident that our strong curriculum and teacher support structures would allow both Robert and the students to be successful."

"I have a passion to serve others," says Chenault, who is in his second year of teaching and is provided with classes in science pedagogy by KNOTtT partner Wright State University. During his first year with KNOTtT, he received e-coaching in classroom management skills.

"I care not only about dispersing knowledge on a particular subject," he says, "but also about the student as a whole person who has needs and challenges outside the classroom that often affect performance in the classroom. I have a passion to help them become better people, more productive citizens, and future leaders."

As an administrator, Doerman finds working with Project KNOTtT beneficial in many ways, including the ability it gives her to identify strong teacher candidates with great potential at the onset of their educational careers.

With support from Project KNOTtT, the alternative pathway to licensure gives the school the opportunity to shape teachers as they learn and grow in the classroom, both at the university and school levels.

"By the time they completed their licensure, there is a 'seamless transition,'" Doerman says. "We have a teacher who is highly qualified, is already assimilated into our school culture and has a good rapport with the students, is trained in our programs and knows the curriculum, and most importantly, will ensure that students achieve."

Chenault says, "I care about the students. I want to return each day and give them my best. I am now doing what I believe I was meant to do all along."

Apply now to a participating school district

Belinda Gimbert specifies that Project KNOTtT is open to additional schools and school districts if they meet the federal criteria for high need and hard to staff. The participating school districts and their university partners as of June 2009 are:

To explore the opportunity to apply to be a teacher at one of these schools and receive support from project KNOTtT, please contact Debra Weaver at weaver.22@osu.edu or (614) 292-9934. In your message, ask for either Belinda Gimbert, PhD, or Patricia Hanna, Project KNOTtT, School of Educational Policy and Leadership, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University.

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