Would-be teachers flock to info sessions
Susan Scutti has spent the last seven years as a pharmacist, most recently at a mail-order company where she spends more time looking at pill bottles than talking to people.
Susan Scutti has spent the last seven years as a pharmacist, most recently at a mail-order company where she spends more time looking at pill bottles than talking to people.
Now she's considering a career in teaching so she can tutor high school students who need help in physics.
"I really prefer the one-on-one contact with students and focusing on their needs," said Scutti, 42, of Horsham. "I'm very bored in my job now. I'm looking for a new challenge."
Scutti was one of about 165 people who had registered for information sessions on teacher certification at the African American Museum in Philadelphia yesterday.
Teacher candidates must have a bachelor's degree and additional training to show they have mastered the subjects they are interested in teaching. They must also undergo a background check and pass a certification exam, said Mike Holden, director of public relations for the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, who held the sessions yesterday.
Many who attended are already employed; some have held the same jobs for decades, and hope that a teaching career will bring greater fulfillment.
Sharon Rice, 53, of Germantown, has worked for the city for 22 years, including 16 years with the Water Department. But she went to college for human services and wanted to be a social worker or counselor, she said.
She worked briefly as a social worker in the prison system and then as a caseworker for the state Department of Public Welfare, but said she felt she needed better guidance on how to do those jobs.
Now Rice is hoping to leave the Water Department, where she manages 311 calls, and become a special-education teacher.
"I just wanted to really do something where I could teach and impact a life," she said.
Ken Williams, 50, of Edgewater Park, has commuted to New York City for 23 years for his job with the transit authority. Now that he has grandchildren, he would like to be closer to home and spend more time with them and other children.
"I'd like to have some kind of influence on their path," he said.
Williams would like to teach elementary school in Philadelphia, where, he feels, "there's a need."
Traditionally, urban districts tend to have teacher shortages in math, foreign languages, and special education. But this year, Philadelphia has fared better with vacancies.
Still, high turnover remains a problem. Many teachers leave within the first five years.
Even with teaching certification, finding work can be difficult. Gwen Blackshear, 29, of South Philadelphia, is certified in elementary and early-childhood education, but can't find a full-time teaching position even after seven years as a student teacher and substitute teacher at Samuel B. Huey School in West Philadelphia.
"I'm on a waiting list," she said.
Blackshear went to the information session to see how the online certification program offered by American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence works. She majored in English in college, and thinks she may become certified to teach English in high school, where there are more job opportunities, she said. She's hoping she doesn't have to go back to school again.
"I have so many loans it's ridiculous," she said.
