In line with the University of Wyoming Enterprise for Elevating Education Excellence’s (UW-E4) goals, is the plan to extend educational exploration opportunities to UW’s prospective students currently attending high school.
Phase one of the UW-E4’s ten phase plan involves the implementation of Educators Rising, a national organization that focuses on the introduction of education as a profession beginning at the high school level. The hope is that the program will be accepted in districts across the state.
“Phase one, in a nutshell, is the early engagement of promising students while they’re in high school to have them start thinking about what it might feel like to be in an education profession like a teacher [or] counselor,” Trustees Education Initiative Director Rebecca Watts said.
Educators Rising focuses on the role of a teacher and will afford the students involved with the opportunity to feel what it’s like to actually be an educator. It utilizes online modules, classroom observations, conferences and competitions in order to expose students to the realm of professional education.
At the district level, teachers and schools that decide to jump onboard with the program will decide if Educators Rising is used as an actual course integrated into the high school curriculum, or an after-school activity. Both have the potential to award students with college credit.
“It would allow them an opportunity to explore,” Watts said. “So many times, we have students that enter an academic major and get a year or two into it and say ‘I thought this is what I wanted, but this isn’t so much what I wanted to do.’”
Elementary Education major, Tabi Stewart, feels that even having the option to look into a group such as Educators Rising would have helped her find her path in college quicker.
“I would have definitely wanted to have a program like [Educators Rising] when I was in high school,” Stewart said. “It sounds like it would be very helpful and … I’m pretty sure if I had that, I would not have come to college undeclared. It would have really helped me figure out what I wanted to do and start my freshman year off a lot better than it did.”
This program offers a comprehensive look at all grade levels and academic subjects.
“Like all professions, the earlier that an individual can have an opportunity to see what it feels like, the more informed decision they can make about what they want their career pathway and their education to career pathway to be,” Watts said.
Spanish professor, Yenicet Wilcox, from the UW Lab School is one of the local teachers excited about the implementation of Educators Rising. Being able to participate in this program would allow her to share her own story of discovering her love for educating and encourage others to explore similar paths.
Originally an international student from South America, Wilcox went into college pursuing a nursing degree until she changed it to anthropology. Years later, her eyes were opened to the possibility of being an educator after being able to work for three years at a preschool in Cheyenne.
“You need more than just a need for a job to become a teacher,” Wilcox said. “You actually have to be passionate in order to teach – to do it well and to like what you’re doing.”
Wilcox hopes to open the minds of the high schoolers that get involved with the program to what education truly is. She emphasizes that while being a teacher may not be financially satisfying, the chance to see students change and learn is the true reward.
Educators Rising has been around nationally for some time now. Much like preparatory groups such as FFA and engineering clubs, it aims to prepare students to shift their perception of the classroom from a student view to an educator’s view.
“It’s time for Wyoming to be a part of that as well,” Watts said.
