Making Challenges Achievable for New Teachers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For eleven aspiring teachers, one hurdle to mastering their profession has become both more achievable and more challenging. As recipients of the first Great Expectations of Arkansas Master of Arts in Teaching Fellowship, these recent UA grads will embark on their fifth-year internship program with the dilemma of paying tuition expenses resolved.

The $12,000 fellowships allow students to devote their time to the demanding MAT program, which requires a full-time internship with a teacher-mentor for an entire school year, in addition to graduate course work. The Great Expectations of Arkansas fellowships are the first MAT fellowships in the College of Education and Health Professions.

"The fellowships represent crucial support for students who have made the commitment to become outstanding elementary school teachers," said college dean Reed Greenwood. "The college demands a lot of students to earn an MAT, and it will be important to develop more such fellowships to make it possible for dedicated individuals to enter the teaching profession."

With the removal of the financial obstacle comes an additional challenge welcomed by the Great Expectations of Arkansas MAT Fellows: they will intern in a school that has adopted the Great Expectations program as its guiding philosophy. Fellows will attend a summer institute in Clarksville, Ark., for initial training in the Great Expectations beliefs and methods, and will intern at Happy Hollow school beginning in the fall.

"Students tell us that participating in the Great Expectations of Arkansas institutes makes the theory they have learned become real," said Marie Parker, program director. "They tell us that for the first time they really understand managing a classroom."

Parker noted that all MAT interns are invited to attend the summer institute, whether or not they will be interning in a school that has adopted the Great Expectations of Arkansas program.

"Their excitement about Great Expectations and their experience with the institute opens doors for them professionally," Parker said.

Great Expectations of Arkansas trains classroom teachers to develop a nurturing educational environment and is used in nearly 50 schools throughout Arkansas. The Great Expectations philosophy is that when children are respected, and when they are expected to do well, they come to respect their own abilities and begin to succeed and grow.

Great Expectations classrooms are characterized by active participation by students in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Student achievement comes from the positive discipline of setting and reaching goals.