CTEC

"Authenticity requires vulnerability, transparency, and integrity." -Janet Louise Stephenson

This quote has been illuminating my lock screen on my iPhone for months now. As soon as I accepted the position at CTEC (Charlotte Teaching Early College). In less than a week close to 50 bright-eyed freshies will be entering the lower level of Cato College of Education. There they'll find four educators excited about sharing their passion for their profession and hopefully we'll start cultivating new teachers. This program is the first like it in the state and one of a few in the entire country. The ability of the program to spread, to be viable, to help sustain our career is invested in these first 50 students. 

I was asked why this school was special by someone writing a story for CMS and these are thoughts that I sent: 

For me, the Teacher's Early College is an exceptional way to start inspiring young minds with meaningful connections in hopes that they discover that teaching is a vibrant career option. Our state has seen an unfortunate decline in accredited universities offering education based diplomas at undergraduate and graduate levels because of lack of enrollment. Between this lack of interest and the burn-out that many educators experience in the first years on the job due to their inability to close the gap between the expectation and the reality of the career, its no wonder that we can't sustain all the highly qualified educators we need all over the state. This program provides a rare opportunity for students to start gaining the tools and understandings of what a "good teacher" looks like and how to emulate that practice. It's also unique in the fact that all the people participating in this training are invested educators whose love for the classroom is evident and infectious. I am a CMS graduate that attended University Meadows, Ranson, Northridge, and Vance. I also graduated from UNC-Charlotte for my undergraduate degree in Math Education. This year will be incredibly special to me, as students share so many similar experiences to me. And I hope that these students help start revitalizing the career that I love and employ a system that provided me with the passion to teach. 

(Okay Kristen, Back to the quote! ) 

I know that the one thing that will go a long way in my classroom is authentic relationships and authentic tasks for my students. This means that I will be the most transparent I can about my intentions for content, decisions, my professional triumphs and professional growth. I want to be vulnerable to my colleagues so that they can impart their knowledge and ideas on me to be a better teacher. I feel as though these things will mean more than they ever had in my classroom. I have a lot of hopes for my students. I want them to not only access the curriculum in a new exciting way, but start to evaluate how they access it.

***Update***
During the first week of being open several news crews, newspapers, and media outlets involved in the school have shown up. I've been quoted in some of these and some of our kids have been interviewed. I figure I'd document them here:

WBTV Local News Story
CMS Story (I'm quoted in this one)
UNC-Charlotte Story
WCCB Local News Story (I'm at the end of this broadcast)
Charlotte Observer 
WSOC Local News Story
Education Weekly (National Coverage)