At the end of August, first-year teachers from Prince Edward County Public Schools (PECPS) and their mentors, also PECPS teachers, gathered in the Upchurch University Center’s Soza Ballroom to kick off the second year of the New Beginnings Mentor Program.
The program, funded by a $24,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Education and in partnership with Longwood, launched at the beginning of the last school year to provide holistic support to Prince Edward’s first-year teachers.
Longwood faculty and staff members serve as clinical faculty who facilitate evidence-based training sessions for professional development. This year, PECPS identified the following areas of focus for professional development: classroom management, culturally responsive teaching, trauma-informed care and maintaining professionalism with a work-life balance.
The first session on Aug. 28 included a welcome from the director of Longwood’s Office of Teacher Preparation, Dr. Tara McDaniel, and then a presentation on classroom management by Dr. Alecia Blackwood, assistant professor of education. Later this month Blackwood will present again on culturally responsive teaching. That event will be held at a PECPS facility. Next month, Dr. Marsha Rutledge, associate professor of counselor education and program director for counselor education, will offer a presentation on trauma-informed care. The sessions will wrap up early next year when Patti Carey, executive director of the McGaughy Internship and Professional Development Center and a lecturer in the College of Business and Economics, will present on maintaining professionalism with a work-life balance.
Amber Litchford ’17, assistant director of field experiences in the Office of Teacher Preparation, collaborated with Amy McClure, coordinator of grants at PECPS, and Jeannie Garrett, PECPS coordinator of teaching and learning, on the programming for the second year of the New Beginnings program. Litchford identified the Longwood faculty and staff who would be best-suited to offer the professional development sessions based on the areas of focus chosen by PECPS.
The New Beginnings Mentor Program is just one recent example of how Longwood is working in partnership with PECPS to support tutoring, mentoring and coaching local students in the Farmville community.
Dean of Admissions Jason “Ferg” Ferguson is working with the college advisor at Prince Edward County High School (PECHS) to offer college admissions preparation assistance to PECHS students, including essay-writing workshops and help with understanding financial aid. Students from PECHS are planning to attend a college fair that Longwood is hosting in early October.
Also, last year Longwood was one of 26 institutions nationally that answered the call from the federal government and the private sector to help provide more hands-on tutoring, mentoring and coaching in an effort to close achievement gaps among schoolchildren in their home communities. Longwood students who receive Federal Work-Study have served as tutors working in kindergarten classrooms at Prince Edward County Elementary School (PECES).
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