VIRGINIA BEACH – The city’s school district is embarking on a new partnership to develop teachers its classrooms.
Virginia Beach Public Schools announced last week that it will be working with the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education to accept teacher candidates for a yearlong fellowship that involve hands-on classroom experience under supervision of a resident teacher. That’s a half year longer than typical student-teacher fellowships already in the city’s public schools.
“The school leadership is very excited about this,” said Jeff Barba, a school district spokesman. “It gives the individual a chance to really see the ins and outs of what’s going on in any school division, especially one of this size.”
The school division will select candidates from the Curry School of Education and place them in “areas of critical need, such as special education, secondary math, science and technology,” according to a release. Participants will have an advantage over outside teachers applying to work in the division for the first time, according to Barba.
For those student-teachers who commit to Virginia Beach for their first three years of teaching after graduation, Curry will provide two years of resources and guidance. That benefits the teachers and the schools, according to Barba.
The teachers will be better prepare for their all-important first year of teaching, and the additional support over their first two years will set them up for long-term success, he said.
“For a lot of teachers, it’s make-it or break-it in that first year. That’s just the nature of the beast in education,” Barba said. “Because the first year is really rough for some.”
Fredericksburg and Goochland counties are also participating in the pilot partnership with Curry.
Virginia Beach’s public schools will start out with a small group of fellows, likely no more than 10, Barba said.
“We, just like Curry, are going to start off with baby steps to make sure this program does work,” he said. “We feel that it will, but if you bite off more than you can chew, you’re going to run into some problems.”
The first candidates from the program will begin the fellowships in September 2017.
