Posted: Might 10, 2010
The large school instructor understands the way to give a lecture, but isn't very current about the most current technology in pc science. The IT skilled is up-to-speed on personal computer science, but isn't going to understand how to make a lesson prepare, or manage an unruly teenager in the classroom. Together, however, they can be understanding from a single one more.
"Pedagogy is what I am learning from them, while I'm bringing my IT skills, which they don't have, to them," says Devon Smith, 46, who spent more than 20 years working for Dow Jones & Co. as a software engineer, before leaving the company in 2006. "Everybody is helping everybody."
The three-year program, called Operation Reboot,
microsoft Office 2010 License, is trying to help 30 IT professionals—ten each year—re-enter the workforce as large school computer science teachers. The program, run by the Georgia Institute of Technology's college of computing in collaboration with the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GaTAPP), pairs an IT worker with an existing computing teacher.
They co-teach at least two computing classes for one particular year, allowing the IT skilled to learn the ins and outs of the classroom, and the teacher to get an education in information engineering. The National Science Foundation is funding the program through $2.5 million in grant money, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In Georgia, teachers need only a business certification to teach pc science. As a result, "a lot of people who teach pc science classes don't have any formal training in computer science," says Barbara Ericson, director of computing outreach at Georgia Tech's college of computing. "So the idea was to match up people who have the knowledge and background in laptop or computer science, but don't necessarily understand how to teach."
Each of the IT workers is taking courses with GaTAPP to obtain a teacher's certification. They have three years to finish. Georgia Tech pays the $5,
Office Enterprise 2007,000 in fees. Since there is no certification in laptop or computer sciences, the IT professionals concentrate on math, science or business. The IT workers and the teachers also attend classes at Georgia Tech, which provides courses on the best way to teach pc science.
Furthermore, the teachers and the IT workers both attend workshops once a month throughout the school year and week-long workshops from the summer. Each duo also is assigned a "mentor," an experienced computer science teacher, who meets with them periodically to talk regarding the issues they may be encountering in their schools, and offers suggestions to enhance their personal computer teaching skills. The teachers receive new textbooks for their classes, and stipends totaling about $2,250 for attending the sessions.
"The idea is to get them both trained in better ways to teach pc science,
Office 2007 Professional Plus Key," Ericson says. "Sometimes, you're the only laptop or computer science teacher in the university, and it's hard to discuss things with anyone else at the college because nobody understands what you are talking about."
For the one-time laptop or computer professionals, "it's now a extremely different lifestyle," Ericson says. "University is different."
Smith, who teaches in an inner-city Atlanta higher university, agrees. "It's been a little rough," he says. "Many of these students bring different issues into the classroom from day to day. But I'm committed to doing this."
With a homemaker wife and three children, one particular of them in college, he's happy to be using his skills within the workplace again. Each IT worker receives a monthly stipend of $3,410 for 11 months, and the use of a laptop while within the program. "It's been a good experience,
Purchase Office 2010, "Smith says. "I'm making it work,
Microsoft Office 2010 Key, and I get a lot of support."
He wishes, even so, that the schools had newer, more up-to-date computer equipment for their students. "They're not the best," he says. "They're old. They definitely need some upgrading."
Still, "some of the kids really like computers. Their faces really light up when I take over. It's different from what they're used to," he says. "Initially, the kids didn't see where computers would help. I have to remind them that what they learn here will absolutely affect everything they will be doing, that, whatever it is, somehow a computer will be involved."