Hi Nick. Great video and exciting program! Question: Have you found it challenging to recruit students to the program? It looks like you have quite a few, which is fantastic.

My project (Get the Facts Out) is about helping recruit students to STEM teaching, and we're actually trying to expand our work with 4-year colleges to 2-year colleges. Perhaps we can work together!

Hi Nick! I agree-connecting learning with making learning personal is critical. As you recruit community college students to the teaching pathway, I am curious what your first point of contact is with students you recruit? Thanks!

Hello all,

Thank you for stopping by our page and viewing our video. Recruitment has definitely been a challenge as we are in our 4-5th year because we didn't have as many candidates as we hoped. It has really been a great program and has helped countless preservice teachers. 

Great video, Nick! The students' culturally relevant pedagogical knowledge gave me goosebumps. 

Great work.  The model of bringing community college students into teaching seems very wise and could allow for building capacity in specific local communities.  Can you tell us more about impact - whether students are moving through the program and into positions/obtaining teaching credentials?  The focus on high expectations is also good; do the participants have any specific challenges as they work to introduce and hold high expectations K-12 classrooms, and what strategies do you offer to support their efforts?

I will confess that I had to think for a minute about why it's called "Vols Teach" - got it!

Thanks so much for sharing this project with us. I would love to learn more about what you consider to be the most outstanding features of your teacher preparation program. I notice that participants were discussing culturally responsive pedagogy. Do these participants engage in activities where they examine and reflect upon their own cultural practices, ideas and beliefs? Have they written positionality statements, for example? I am curious about how the teachers will bring their cultural selves to the activity of teaching. 

Hello Joi,

Before the pandemic, I would say early and often classroom experiences was one of our most outstanding features of our TPP. Our scholars do reflect upon their own cultural practice, ideas, and beliefs, but have not written positionality statements unless they are in their last semester of the program. That is an interesting point, and something I want to explore in this 5th year. The VolsTeach faculty try to emphasize the importance of understanding one's cultural self while considering the different cultures of others. 

Hello Nick!  I was born in the "heart of Appalachia", just a couple of hours away from your campus near the tri-cities area.  After graduating from high school, attending a community college, then transferring to a university, I ended up teaching chemistry and chemical technology at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC.  I wish we were closer to each other!  Our program is crafted to meet the needs of industry partners, but we do have students that are interested in teaching or would see this as a possible career option.  It would be curious to know feedback from students in transfer pathways at CCs versus those in STEM career (CTE) pathways.  Keep up the excellent work! 

Hello, Nick!  I truly enjoyed learning about your program.  We are entering our 3rd year of our NOYCE project and would like to recruit more from our community college partner.  Do you have any suggestions?