ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 17, 1996 TAG: 9611180011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-23 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
For the first time in her 24-year career, Carolyn Shockley is teaching language arts.
The Christiansburg Middle School teacher usually teaches math. But a growing student population and few teachers or scheduling options have caused administrators to make additional demands on teachers.
Shockley fears middle schools are moving away from teachers with expertise in one subject area. More and more, teachers are being trained in at least two areas. Radford University, in fact, encourages it. The school is one of 30 universities to offer a nationally certified program in middle school teaching.
Radford student Christie Blair, who will graduate in December with a degree in middle school teaching, said she feels fully prepared and knowledgable to teach both math and science.
"They're my passion anyway, and I've had a lot of courses in college," she said from the Dublin Middle School classroom where she student teaches.
Radford Professor Vickie Linkous said studying more than one core area correlates with the philosophy that preteens - who are just beginning to learn in an abstract, more complex way - need to see connections to other areas of study and to real life.
Students who focus on middle school teaching must take 15 hours beyond the general education requirements in each area. In English, for example, they would take 24 credits to be certified to teach, compared to 40 hours to major in English.
At Dalton Intermediate School, the seventh- and eighth-grade school that sits just a few miles from Radford University, Principal Bob Young said he supports teaching future teachers about the middle school philosophy, but also wants a strong background in one area.
"If [student teachers] came out with just a middle school endorsement they usually aren't real strong in the core background," Young said. "That's really true in math, where we're teaching algebra and geometry."
Still, when hiring teachers, Young prefers middle-school experience over experience in one core area because the age group can be so challenging.
Montgomery County Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers describes middle school as a tight rope between elementary school's focus on developing a well-rounded child and high school's focus on academics. "It doesn't have to be one or the other."
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Student teacher Christie Blair (left)by CNBexplains a math problem to her Dublin Middle School seventh-grade
students as she stands in front of an overhead projector.