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Local school district is teaching students to teach

Incentives include paid application fees to colleges, work in after-school programs, a free paraprofessional exam and a guaranteed interview with the district.

MOLINE, Ill. — Moline-Coal Valley School District is working to do its part to combat the nationwide teacher shortage by launching its own "Grow Your Own Teacher" program. 

The program looks for students who express interest in a career of education with three elective courses.

The First Course is called the 'Blueprint for teaching." This is where students learn the science behind how a classroom could be run effectively. In the second course, "Architecture of curriculum and instruction," students will lean how to teach. In the third course, "Constructing a learning community," students learn an effective teacher makes the classroom a safe space for risk taking. 

Outside of the classroom students are given the opportunity for field experience, which includes shadowing working teachers in the district, being paired with a teacher mentor who will help them grow in their learning and the opportunity for paid after-school teaching programs with the Two Rivers YMCA.

Students who successfully complete all three classes are given articulated college credit, which allows them to bypass certain general education courses. The articulated credit is only available currently with Black Hawk College and Western Illinois University. The "Grow Your Own Teacher" program will also pay for students application fees to Black Hawk College and Western Illinois University.

While the students attend higher education learning, they will have the opportunity to get into a classroom and assist a working teacher, as the program also offers to pay for the student's paraprofessional exam. Then, after the students graduate from college or university, they are guaranteed interviews with the Moline-Coal Valley School District.

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