May 8, 2024 – Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools hosted brand new teachers from the Winston-Salem Teachers for Equity, Achievement, Community and Humanity residency program for a recognitions ceremony on Tuesday night.
WS-TEACH is a collaborative project led by Salem College, Wake Forest University, and Winston-Salem State University that prepares prospective educators to be teacher leaders at high-need campuses throughout WS/FCS. Residents receive a stipend to help them complete 14 months of coursework and two clinical teaching internships enroute to licensure in their content area and a position in a school following their graduation. The program’s innovative coaching model and opportunities for professional development make it an excellent pipeline for supplying the district with the most qualified teachers it can get.
“They’ve been very busy completing their coursework and getting ready for their positions,” said WS-TEACH Executive Director Kate Allman. “This elevates the teaching profession in a way that it really needs to be elevated, and we’re very excited to be helping these teachers get their start.”
Residents who attended the awards ceremony enjoyed refreshments and each other’s company as they reflected on their progress through the program alongside their teacher mentors. They recited poems that they felt spoke to their experience in residency and received superlative awards that their mentors had voted on based on their performance in their classrooms. Working with a teacher mentor is an indispensable source of knowledge for a resident, allowing them to learn some of the intangibles of the profession that only come through firsthand exposure.
“My mentee is getting hands-on experience with what we do in the classroom every day, and that experience is invaluable,” said Parkland High School EC Teacher Mary Wood.
WS/FCS is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week this week, and it’s practically impossible to summarize the sheer volume of work that teachers do throughout the district to facilitate student success. In everything from providing quality instruction to translating difficult topics to volunteering for extra activities after school to assuring students that there are adults in their lives who care about them and want to see them succeed, teaching is a comprehensive job that just can’t be done without a deeply held love for students. The newly minted teachers of this year’s WS-TEACH class know the challenges that await them as they begin their careers in high-need schools, and they’re confident that they’ll rise to the occasion because they want nothing more than to give their students the strong start in life that they deserve.
“I’ve had a desire to teach all my life. I’ve always known that teaching is what I wanted to do,” said Sam Schectman, who’ll begin teaching at Parkland next year. “Kids have a passion and a desire to learn that tends to get snuffed out of adults. I want to help them preserve that passion as best as I can.”
WS/FCS looks forward to seeing the impact these new teachers make in the lives of students, and to every teacher who’s already putting in that hard work this year, please know that your efforts matter more than you will ever fully comprehend.
“Sometimes, even when we think we haven’t done enough for our students, we make impacts in ways that we’ll never fully know,” said Executive Director of Systems of Coherence and Strategic Planning Alexandra Hoskins.