LAKE COUNTY>>> This summer the Teach Lake County program received full program approval from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, enabling them to expand their offerings. Now a lot of teachers who graduated from the program have started a new academic year with the tools acquired from the program.
Originally started in 2017, the Teach Lake County program has graduated over 70 educators through their fully independent and locally operated teaching preparation program. According to a June press release, these newly credentialed teachers are “contributing directly to addressing the teacher shortage in Lake County and beyond.”
With this approval, the program can prepare for the next phase of development as the team focuses on refining the curriculum to best suit the needs of local schools. Brock Falkenberg, Lake County Superintendent of Schools shared, “Teach Lake County is not just about credentials, it’s about building capacity from within and giving our educators a high-quality, affordable path to earn their credential.”
Director of Teach Lake County Jaimie Buckner-Bridges shared how far the program has come stating, “Moving toward full CTC approval means we’ll be able to expand what we offer, both in terms of program options and the communities we serve.” The TLC program is committed to “reaching deeper into underserved and rural communities throughout California.”
This past summer the program saw over nine candidates who educate from Lake, Mendocino, and Shasta Counties. First Grade Teacher at Kelseyville Elementary Heather Villalobos shared some of her recent experience with the TLC program as she continues her path towards her master’s degree.
She shared, “TLC is educating us in the most innovative, research-based, and up-to-date practices that will best support our students and our skills and knowledge as educators.” She said she is enjoying, “having support through every step of the way in earning my teaching credential.” Villalobos added that “It is nice to work with staff that are local and building relationships with classmates.” Though as a full-time teacher and mother, Villalobos also found, “It might be a helpful addition to provide some asynchronous courses because of the busy schedule.”
If not for the TLC program, Villalobos shared that she may have had to choose another program that would most likely be more costly, less personable, and not as supportive as TLC. Detailing the importance of the program she said, “I don’t think people realize how many requirements there are and how much work it is to become a fully credentialed teacher in California and Teach Lake County has guided us through every step.” Also of note, was how successful the TLC program is in supporting teachers in meeting their requirements and passing the state’s credentialing exams and teaching performance assessments in California. She also marveled at how innovative the research-based practices are and how they best support both students and teachers.
Jackie Pasalo is a kindergarten teacher at Kelseyville Unified at Kelseyville Elementary School. She said she always loved kids and heard about the program from Facebook and through a post on the Lake County Office of Education page. When she was out of high school, she decided to go into early health and education, though she was sidetracked a little bit with accounting, she did some student teaching for her bachelor’s. Pasalo said she fell in love with 4 and 5 year olds. She did HeadStart and preschool for a few years. She said she wanted to do something more substantial and decided to become a teacher.
When she started, they did a hybrid – a day in person, a day online, and met on Saturday once a week. In regards to her participation in the program, Pasalo said all professors were local, knowledgeable and knew the students they were working with. She found the program easy, the people supportive and she liked Teach Lake County because she didn’t know any other.
She said the hardest part about the program and the process was passing the TPAs (teacher’s performance assessment) from the state. “Professor, Erika Barrish was amazing,” she said, praising the instructors, adding that all of the professors in the virtual program were amazing. She said that for someone that started her career late (in her 50s) such as herself, the program was a blessing. It helped her figure out her path and she highly recommends it to anyone who wants to go into teaching.
Gabby Cruz, 27, graduated the program this year and is currently teaching at Calpella Elementary School at Ukiah Unified School District, although this is her third year teaching. “The cohort you start with is the cohort you finish with,” she said noting that she had been going to school with the same people for two and a half years. “So that was really nice to get to know each other well and build a sense of community, that was really cool. I don’t think we realized that would even happen, I don’t think we knew we wanted that until we knew that was happening, getting close, just being able to talk to other teachers in our community, it’s really hard and demanding to be a teacher and to have the support was cool.”
Cruz said Lake County being so small, teachers and prospective teachers have a lot of support, and the program seems to provide very private individualized instruction, as opposed to a much bigger university program. “The most rewarding part of going through the program is what you are learning is what is being applied regularly in your classroom,” she said, adding that being able to apply what one learns the next day helps reinforce what they learn through the program. Cruz said the program also gives teachers a lot of the tools they need to be successful like classroom management and lesson planning.
