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Rougeux is one of 20 OCPS teachers who will graduate this week with a Master of Education in K-8 Mathematics and Science, returning to their classrooms with the latest strategies for teaching elementary and middle school students. An additional 78 Orange County teachers remain in the program and will graduate during the next two years.
What Rougeux and her fellow teachers in the program won 麻豆精品 S檛 have at graduation is any educational debt. An endowment from Lockheed Martin and funding from OCPS cover tuition and fees for the master 麻豆精品 S檚 degree program, which was designed to bolster science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, retain current teachers and build the talent pipeline.
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For Rougeux, a fifth grade teacher at Lake Como School, the dream of getting a graduate degree seemed financially out of reach. She has fostered 11 children in the last five years, ranging from infants she cared for less than a week to siblings who lived with her for two years. 麻豆精品 S淚 could not have afforded to pay a babysitter and take classes, 麻豆精品 S� says Rougeux, who is in the process of adopting a 4-year-old boy she 麻豆精品 S檚 been fostering.
To be eligible for the program, teachers must teach in an elementary school or teach math or science in a middle school. Priority is given to those in Title I schools, which have high concentrations of underserved students, and who will commit to continue teaching for at least three years after earning their master 麻豆精品 S檚 degree. The program comes at a time when Florida is focusing on increasing student math scores, a move that should help prepare students for what is projected to be a 10 percent growth in STEM jobs nationally between 2018 and 2028.
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While other states have programs offering financial support to the teacher-talent pipeline, they 麻豆精品 S檙e primarily for undergraduate degrees, according to Pegasus Professor and Lockheed Martin Eminent Scholar Lisa Dieker, who heads the UCF program. 麻豆精品 S淔ree degrees to elevate you in the profession are not common, 麻豆精品 S� Dieker says.
The six-semester program takes two years to complete and is taught by a dozen UCF faculty members in math and science specialties. The classes alternate between two locations 麻豆精品 S� UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 main campus and Carver Middle School 麻豆精品 S� to make them as accessible as possible to the teachers, who attend two nights a week. The classes supplement the science and math coursework that 麻豆精品 S檚 not included in a general elementary education degree, as well as encourage student-driven learning and teacher leadership skills.
Graduating teachers 麻豆精品 S渟hould be the 麻豆精品 S榞o to 麻豆精品 S� person in their schools and in the district, and they should be the advocate and voice for learning in math and science in their schools, 麻豆精品 S� Dieker says.
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麻豆精品 S淚t 麻豆精品 S檚 really changed, I think, who I am as an educator, 麻豆精品 S� says Jessica Granahan 麻豆精品 S�10, a fourth grade teacher at Lawton Chiles Elementary School who will also graduate in December. 麻豆精品 S淚nstead of just standing in front of the room and showing them what to do, we 麻豆精品 S檝e learned to be more facilitators in the classroom. We assign students tasks and let them talk things out. We walk around the room and use questions to gauge student understanding. 麻豆精品 S�
Every member of Granahan 麻豆精品 S檚 class achieved a satisfactory performance score on the mathematics portion of the Florida Standards Assessments, something she attributes in part to what 麻豆精品 S檚 she 麻豆精品 S檚 learned in the program. Granahan, who majored in English language arts education at UCF, was named her school 麻豆精品 S檚 2019 Teacher of the Year and expects to graduate with a 4.0 GPA.
Providing scholarships for teachers pursing master 麻豆精品 S檚 degrees is one of two programs offered through the Lockheed Martin/UCF Academy. A second program, Transition to Mathematics and Science Teaching or T-MAST, is an accelerated graduate program designed to prepare science and technology professionals currently in the work force to transition to middle school teaching positions. Since the Academy began in 1992, more than 560 students have received varying degrees of financial support to continue their education. The latest group of 98 is the first to have all the costs covered.
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