Multiple districts — Kara Dennings carefully watched Whitehall teacher Gabe Knowles. She was not only paying attention to him explain how to teach science to elementary students, but how Knowles modeled classroom management.
“He’s always like, ‘I’ll wait until you guys are ready to listen to me,’ and then everybody immediately drops down and we want to pay attention, because what he has to say is important,” said Dennings, the multi-tiered system of supports interventionist for Forest Hills’ Ada Elementary. “I can see how that will work in a regular classroom.”
It is one of many skills that Dennings said she is learning from the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative’s Summer Institute, a kick-off program for the WMTC residency, a three-year opportunity for those who have a bachelor’s degree in any subject and want to earn teaching certificates.
The collaborative, a partnership between Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon ISDs and Grand Valley State University, is designed to equip prospective teachers to go into and remain in the profession, and to help current teachers earn advanced degrees and qualifications.
Only in its second year, the program recently received support from the state: $9 million to continue its development of the program and support to West Michigan teachers.
“It is super exciting, as it sends a strong message that what we are doing — how we are teaching the profession — is working, and now we have the opportunity to grow and build it,” said Laura Castle, Kent ISD’s director of teacher development.
Castle said the funding will allow the program to extend beyond its original funding of around $19 million, which came from the Future Proud Michigan Educator Grow Your Own Programs for School Staff Grant, a federal grant that ends in 2026. With the state funding, the collaborative is able to support more new and current teachers, Castle said, adding that WMTC is accepting applications for its second cohort through Sept. 9.
‘It is lowering barriers and making it possible for people to enter the profession, and … it is high-quality teacher preparation.’
— Laura Castle, Kent ISD Director of Teacher Development
Lowered Barriers, High-quality Preparation
“I think what makes the collaborative program work is two things,” Castle said. “One is that it is lowering barriers and making it possible for people to enter the profession, and two, it is high-quality teacher preparation.”
Dennings said the collaborative makes sure “barriers are gone” by providing financial support while participants are in the program, connecting them to resources and helping them find teaching positions.
“I am learning about how other schools do things and about how other classrooms work and different types of classrooms,” Dennings said.
She has connected with participants from different backgrounds who have shared their experiences, sparking conversations on topics such as privilege and how it looks to different groups of people.
Shakur Sanders, a floating teacher at Northview’s North Oakview Elementary, said the collaborative focuses on helping the group become the “best teachers we can be” by providing tools and strategies for the classroom, along with mentors and guidance.
One tool Sanders said he is excited to use in a classroom is community circle, for which teachers have students sit alongside them in a circle and talk using a prompt the teacher gives. He said has seen how the practice has brought his own cohort closer.
“The first day, we (had only previously known one another) in our classes online, but now it’s like a really close-knit family. And if you build that in the classroom, how effective would that make the students’ and the teachers’ relationship and learning?”
Sanders said he not only learned how to create lesson plans but also about Michigan’s education standards and how to implement them in those plans, along with developing them for math, science and English, and for different grade levels.
Getting Connected, Building Support
Another component of the collaborative has been the opportunity to learn from educators who have been in the profession for more than 25 years, Sanders said.
Tanner Kosten, support staff for Kenowa Hills Pathways, said he has enjoyed the opportunity to connect with others who have the passion to teach and are going through the process of becoming teachers. It is a group, Kosten said, he knows he will be able to bounce ideas off and learn from as they move through the three-year residency.
The group also shares why they teach, what education means to participants and their students, and how to spread “ripples of hope,” Kosten said.
“One of the mentors here … she talks about how to be a teacher is to get the next doctor, president or lawyer ready, because they all go through K through 12, and that really resonated with me because I never thought about it like that,” Sanders said. “Everybody has to go through K through 12, and we’re gonna be able to impact lives. And with that, that’s all I want to do.
“If I impact one person a year, one person a day, if I can change the outcome of one kid’s life of believing in himself to not make that mistake, to wanting to pursue something, that will be the difference.”
Read more from Kent ISD:
• Teaching: lowering barriers, encouraging passion
• Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon ISDs join forces to recruit teachers
