Over the past three years, the administration at ABAC has been hard at work building a new program for the institution. The community around ABAC has been asking for an Elementary Education program – and we have finally responded!
When it comes to building a new program, one that has been so sought after, Dean Anderson and Dr. Baker both knew the community needed to be considered and heard throughout the process.
Dean Anderson is the Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Education and Arts, while Dr. Baker is the Department Head of Education and Wellness. Both have been working tirelessly to build this program while keeping the students in mind.
During our conversation with Dean Anderson, he shone a spotlight on the pipeline that ABAC has established for people in any stage of life that would be interested in elementary education.
“ABAC has always had a core curriculum associates of science degree with an elementary education pathway, but because we didn’t have a bachelor’s degree in this area, the students would move over and finish the degree at a different institution.” But now, ABAC is offering the Bachelors of Elementary Education, and for those who are just beginning in the classroom, “We have a certificate in Instructional support personal for paraprofessionals and teacher aids. Our students can earn this as they earn their associate and bachelor’s degrees.”
Both Dean Anderson and Dr. Baker were working directly alongside regional superintendents and teachers within the surrounding areas. There are twenty-seven counties that are between and around both the Tifton and Bainbridge campuses – each in a desperate need for elementary education teachers.
When Dr. Baker came into the building process, she began applying for grants to support the program. Those efforts were rewarded with a strong federal grant alongside a state level grant – both being used to repurpose the first floor of Bowen into “multiple classrooms that will look like elementary school classrooms and a maker space classroom where our future teachers can create anything they will need to become a teacher.”
To get the state level grant, Dr. Baker worked with the Coastal Plains Regional Service Education Agency, working directly with “literacy specialists with some of their new teachers in their districts to help support them with early literacy career practices.”
Through this connection with the Coastal Plains Regional Service Agency, an agency that represents twelve school districts, Dr. Baker will be able to see what teachers need support in and is able to add strategies that future teachers can use in the classroom to support them and create strong teachers.
Supporting students beyond their years at ABAC was at the forefront of this program building process – Dr. Baker said many times that this program is one with continuous improvement in mind.
Each year there are plans for expansion and growth, and they want to hear what is going right and wrong in the classroom – whether that be here at ABAC, or in the elementary school classrooms our students will be teaching in.