UWW alumni mark 5 years of Elementary Licensure Program
University Without Walls’ Elementary Licensure Program (ELP) celebrated its fifth anniversary with its first Educators Forum on Oct. 28 at the program’s office in Hadley.
The keynote speaker was Ray Sharick, principal of Fort River Elementary School in Amherst, whose talk was titled “Encouragement for Public School Educators.” He told the audience that his experience shows him that the quality of the teaching is what makes the most impact on students, and stressed the importance of reaching each individual child. He reflected on his early involvement in planning the ELP curriculum, which brings paraprofessionals and other adults back to the University to complete their bachelor’s degrees and become licensed teachers.
Five ELP alumni shared their experiences, including the realities of pursuing a career path in public school education, classroom teaching, graduate school and obtaining licensure through alternative routes.
Gilbert Gordon ’09 talked about his first months as a seventh grade math teacher at the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield and Diane Zamer ’08, a fifth grade teacher at the Homer Street School in Springfield, spoke about completing her master’s degree through the CTEP program after graduating from UWW.
Other alumni who spoke included Linda Singer ’06, a certified special education teacher in the Springfield Academy For Excellence (SAFE) in Springfield, Patricia Graziano’07, currently in her third year as a third grade teacher at the Milton Bradley Elementary School in Springfield, and Judy Lavin’07, a kindergarten teacher at the Meadowbrook Elementary School in East Longmeadow.
Elizabeth Brinkerhoff, ELP manager and faculty member, said, “The UWW Elementary Licensure program has offered a unique opportunity for people who wanted to become educators but who couldn’t fit into a traditional bachelor’s degree program. Working with the School of Education, UWW has been able to make available those courses necessary to provide a path to licensure and bachelor’s degree completion for over 150 people now. These panelists are among a wonderful group of alumni that are teaching our children all across the Commonwealth."
Brinkerhoff added that “The funding from the state that helped many of our UWW students return to school is still in place, the Paraprofessional Teacher Preparation Grant, and now there is additional funding available for graduate work in high need areas such as special education and ELL through the federally funded TEACH grant.”
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UWW Elementary Licensure Program
November 9, 2009.
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