New teacher Cyndi Margiotta works with students in her classroom at Canton Middle School. She is among a group of first-year teachers in Western North Carolina who receive assistance from Western Carolina University’s Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers.

Cyndi Margiotta, who recently began her job as an eighth-grade mathematics teacher at Canton Middle School in Haywood County, had been waiting for the first day of school for a long time.

“I’ve wanted to teach middle-grade math since I was in seventh grade, but time and events took me in another direction,” said Margiotta, a former airline attendant who moved to Western North Carolina in 2005. She was admitted to Western Carolina University’s alternative licensure program and began taking classes to fulfill her dream while working as a program assistant in WCU’s College of Education and Allied Professions.

As a member of the “Millennial” generation (those born between 1978 and the early 1990s), Margiotta admits she has been significantly influenced by the rise of instant communication technologies. That may explain why she took several of her WCU courses online – a format that allowed her to work full time and complete her course work at the same time.

“Undoubtedly, teachers beginning their career in 2008 are very different from the teachers who preceded them,” said Janice Holt, director of Western’s Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers and the Office of Alternative Licensure. “This impacts not only the way they teach, but also the way they learn about teaching.”

That’s one reason the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers, established in 2005 to serve as a regional online support network to first-year teachers, is expanding to include additional components – podcasts, “Ask a Mentor,” and an extensive collection of information, articles and online resources. “The new features all are available for more than 100 first-year teachers in 11 WNC school systems, who are never ‘unplugged,’” said Holt.

The podcasts, housed on WCU iTunes U, are audio and video files that can be played on a computer or downloaded to an iPod or MP3 player. They focus on timely topics for new teachers, and also will include video journals by Margiotta and two other WNC teachers as they live their first year of teaching. “Ask a Mentor” offers a place for new teachers to post questions to e-mentors, who are career teachers on call to provide answers around-the-clock. The CSBT also provides an opportunity for new teachers to form relationships with colleagues from other WNC school systems through grade-level or content-area group discussions.

Carol Douglas, director of human resources for Haywood County schools, said the type of support offered by Western’s CSBT is important to help plug what educators call the “leaking bucket” of teachers who leave the profession early in their careers.

“Extensive bodies of research indicate that support for beginning teachers is the most effective strategy for teacher retention,” said Douglas. “The online support program through the CSBT provides instantaneous support and networking for our beginning teachers. They find immediate answers and ideas from other first-year teachers and from experienced teachers and mentors as questions arise. They have access to a vast array of literature to help them through their first year, at the touch of a button. They don’t have to wait for face-to-face contact to find the answers that they need.”

The CSBT programs are developed in collaboration with WNC public school systems, WCU’s School-University Teacher Education Partnership, other centers housed in the College of Education and Allied Professions, and faculty members from multiple disciplines.

“By working together to help teachers like Cyndi in their first year of teaching, everyone learns more about the effect of support programs on retention and new teacher development,” Holt said. “But retaining teachers in year one alone will not solve the teacher shortage problem as teachers continue to leave the profession.”

The CSBT, which is expanding support to include teachers in years two through five, will launch a pilot project later this year – an iChat program for fifth-grade teachers in their second year of teaching in Asheville City and Alleghany, Haywood, Macon and Swain counties. Using the Apple MacBook, these teachers will be able to capture video clips of classroom activities and interact instantly with their colleagues.

For more information on the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers or alternative licensure, contact Holt at (828) 227-7027 or check out http://csbt.wcu.edu or http://alternativelicensure.wcu.edu.

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Last modified Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008