Teachers Needed-Apprenticeship Pays to Become a Teacher

There is a new program that is aiming to create more teachers here in the Capital Region. It focuses on actual in-classroom student teaching for a more on-the-job learning approach. It is called Classroom Academy and it is an apprenticeship program created by the New York State United Teachers, local school districts, colleges, and Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES according to the Times Union.

When I went to college to get my teaching degree we were only in the classroom student teaching for a fraction of the time we were actually taking college classes. This program would solely focus on on-the-job, in-classroom, hands-on teaching experience. It would give the prospective teachers nearly eighty weeks of student-teaching. Where a typical college program gives about fourteen to sixteen weeks.

With the Classroom Academy program, a new teacher gets two full years of classroom teaching experience, help with tuition, money for housing as well as helping fill many teaching vacancies throughout the Capital Region. The students would spend the two years with a master teacher and get twenty-two thousand dollars a year to cover living costs plus another five thousand dollars in SUNY tuition assistance that can be used toward a graduate degree in the teaching field.

The program is aimed at those who have knowledge of a certain subject and a bachelor's degree. These individuals would be good candidates to become teachers to further their knowledge and teach in the field they are passionate about. The shortage of teachers in the Capital Region isn't directly because of the pandemic. Many baby boomers are retiring opening up a lot of teaching jobs in the area.

To get more information about the Classroom Academy program, click HERE.