CPP Partners in Education Program Helps Fight STEM Teacher Shortage

From left to right are Justin Cortez, Sabrina Galvan, Karl Matamoros, and Teresa Phong.

 

With the current national teacher shortage, there is a great demand for math and science teachers. The Partners in Education (PIE) program at the College of Education and Integrative Studies (CEIS) is helping prepare graduates from the College of Science for teaching careers.

The PIE program has provided over 160 fellowships since 2006 to students in the credential program during their clinical practice experience. Clinical practice is a perfect example of learn-by-doing where students work full-time under an experienced teacher.

Sabrina Galvan (’19, math) received a fellowship from PIE that will help support her during her clinical practice. “Shadowing a teacher is essentially a full-time, unpaid job, so you have to give up your part-time job to attend class. Luckily, PIE offers financial support for students like me so I can focus on my classes and my work with the students,” said Galvan.

“Teaching can be scary for some people. It isn’t always easy to stand in front of people and speak to them in a way that they understand what’s in your head, but people should get out in the field and see the relationships they can build with their students. It has changed me for the better,” said Galvan.

Credential student Justin Cortez (‘19, biochemistry) said, “I tutored my classmates from a very early age during my undergraduate career and one of my professors said I had a knack for it and helped me figure out my career path in education. I have had amazing breakthroughs with students that struggle to understand difficult concepts. I have learned that displaying my love and passion for science to the students helps them feel more comfortable with the subject. By developing this relationship with the students, their performances have improved tremendously.”

Karl Matamoros (‘17, biology) said “[PIE] is so supportive and has allowed me to develop a deeper love for what I am teaching,” said Matamoros. “Teaching in an ever-changing field like science lets you keep up with new discoveries to show your students that what they are learning can be applied to their lives and understand how the things in the world around them work.” People with science backgrounds have a tendency to pursue careers in research, like credential student Teresa Phong initially had, but “with a higher demand for people with STEM backgrounds in education, you are valued so much more than you would be in a typical research job,” said Phong.

The Center for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (CEMaST) at the College of Science has two programs that support STEM teaching. One is the Prete Fellowships, funded by the Ernest Prete Jr. Foundation. This program pairs CPP students with elementary school teachers to deliver science curriculum. The other is the Math and Science Teacher Initiative (MSTI) Scholarship Program which supports talented science and mathematics majors who might not have considered the teaching profession. The deadline to receive funding for Fall 2020 Semester is May 22,2020.

At this moment our future math and science teachers are being challenged to adapt to virtual instruction both as students AND teachers because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teresa Phong, who will start her clinical practice next year, works at a private math tutoring school. “I usually use zoom through a webcam. I have a touch screen, so I teach through remote teaching. I teach a student the steps. Then I have students work out problems and shout out the answers.” Because of the school district’s abrupt shift to online instruction, she worries that some students may fall behind.

Cortez said, “My Collaborating teacher and I upload a PowerPoint presentation into the Google Classrooms that includes me lecturing. Weekly Zoom sessions are conducted per period in order for me to converse with the students and provide structure with the weekly lesson plans. Navigating through Zoom can sometimes be a challenge.”

In terms of her CPP coursework, phong said, “We have to do a lot of group work. While it’s easy to keep in contact, an assignment that was supposed to be done in one class meeting will now be four one-hour based meetings with the professor via Zoom.”

Phong, who did her undergraduate work at UCSD, plans to teach chemistry in secondary school so she can teach hands-on labs and help students develop a love for science.

Sabrina Galvan wants to teach math to high schoolers so she can help de-stigmatize the difficulty of math. “People get the idea that they are bad at math, I want to help them see that it doesn’t have to be scary,” said Galvan.

Justin Cortez wants to teach either middle or high school chemistry to give the students hands-on demonstrations to learn difficult concepts and spark a love for science just as his teachers did for him.

Karl Matamoros wants to teach high school biology to be able to work with more challenging concepts in the classroom. Matamoros said “the future keeps me hopeful. We are taught to help the community around us and we can do that through educating others.”