Grand Prairie to put “ready, set, teach” program into action

by Kirk Dickey of of Grand Prairie TODAY

Grand Prairie School District will begin to see benefits from its Ready, Set, Teach program when two former students return to GPISD as teachers next year.

Megan Doege and Jessica Brinkley plan to be the first teachers hired under the program's “Letter of Intent” plan, in which students are given a guaranteed job with the district if they meet all of the criteria in becoming a teacher. The pair are graduating from college in May.

The letter of intent is an extension of the existing Ready, Set, Teach program, which gives students a first-hand experience of being a teacher.

Under the guidance of Grand Prairie High School's Kathy Mikus and South Grand Prairie's Ann Pogue, the students spend time in the classroom and time at designated elementary and secondary campuses, doing volunteer work assisting with the teachers, so they can get a better idea of what it is like to teach.

“It allows students an opportunity to get a taste of what it is like to be a teacher,” said Norm Whitaker, the district's executive director of recruitment and retention.

The experience cemented Doege's plans to become a teacher after at first doubting the idea.

“I haven't always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “I have thought about it because my mom was a teacher, but I have seen the bad parts of teaching, too.

“What changed (my mind) to definitely wanting to be a teacher was going into Ready, Set, Teach.”

Doege was in kindergarten the first trimester that she took the class and said she really enjoyed working with the children.

“I just loved it,” she said. “I loved all of the teachers that I had and all of the kids and they just loved you.”

The Ready, Set, Teach program, which is part of the curriculum of more than 100 schools in the state, has been an elective at both schools as an elective for many years. And four years ago, the program added the letter of intent. The qualifications include writing an essay, maintaining a good grade point average and completing required coursework as well as an end-of-year interview with Whitaker and Career and Technology Facilitator Jim Ziegler.

If the students meet all of those requirements, the program guarantees them a job, so long as they finished a traditional teaching program within a five year period.

The students are presented with their letters of intent during their senior awards ceremony and it is the key to a guaranteed job. The district keeps a special file for all of the students in their human resources department to verify that the district did make that commitment to them. About a dozen students per year from each of the schools takes the opportunity.

“We are certainly hopeful that everyone who received a letter of intent will come back,” Whitaker said.

And there should always be room for the ones who do. Every year the district hires about 250 teachers on average - including replacements for teacher turnover and new teachers. About half of those are elementary and half are secondary.

But teachers who go through this program are special, according to Whitaker.

“When you have students who come back to their home school district to become teachers, that is just icing on the cake as far as the children,” he said. “It is kind of a value added thing as far as motivating the kids to be the best that they can and to see their teacher as a successful professional.”

Whitaker said he remembers both Doege and Brinkley as “inspiring students.”

“I'm not surprised that they are the first ones to come back, but there are a lot of other ones out there who just haven't finished yet,” he said.

And as for Doege, she is ready to begin her career.

“I have always loved working with kids.” she said. “I am excited to get my own classroom and start my own class of little kids.”