Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning

Making the Credential Work in the Far West GREAT Region

by Maria Cesnik

Thirty-three newly credentialed teachers were honored at the El Paso Literacy & Language (EPALL) Conference in December 2011. In the Far West Region, a total of 46 teachers have earned the Texas Adult Education Teacher Credential.

Working on the Texas Adult Education Teacher Credential used to be a somewhat daunting process that mystified many folks – teachers and sometimes even administrators. There would be a PDPW (Professional Development Planning Workshop) that lasted six hours and teachers would be assigned several things as homework including a Letter of Intent, Letter of Support, and Professional Development (PD) Plan that, initially, they would have to complete on a paper form because the process was not electronic. Then teachers had to fax all those letters and forms in, receive their username and password, write their first reflection, and submit it all by themselves. Given all that, I believe some teachers probably got discouraged by the lengthy process and quit before even getting started. In 2010, the Far West GREAT Center began to work more closely with Credential staff in an effort to increase participation in the Credential. We scheduled a PDPW and had Elizabeth Moya and Laura Hansen, themselves credentialed teachers, as presenters. Because they had completed their Credential a couple of years earlier, they were in a unique position to offer a suggestion that I thought made sense: instead of holding the PDPW for six hours, they proposed we do it in nine hours – on three different evenings, which meant working from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on three different Fridays. Credential staff provided the booklets and electronic documents and was supportive of our decision to modify the PDPW to better meet the needs of teachers in our region.

During the first three-hour session, the presenters did a brief introduction to the Credential and the paperwork to be completed. During the following week, the participants completed all the forms, got their administrators' signatures, and submitted all the paperwork to the Credential office. For the second session, the presenters did a brief review of the previous one and spent a lot of time explaining reflection writing. The assigned homework was to write a reflection on their PDPW experience and start writing a reflection on one of their PD activities as well.

On the final session, participants already had access to Cred- ITS and were ready to learn and practice the steps to submit their reflections electronically. Before they actually submitted their reflections, the facilitators put the participants in pairs and had them review and critique each other's writings. By the end of the evening, they were on their way. They had their PD plans and all information and tools they needed to complete the Credential.

We at the Far West GREAT looked for ways to assist, engage and support our instructors. In order to help participants document their professional development history to determine the points they may claim toward the credential, we went into TEAMS and printed the participants' staff development history for each of the last five years. Additionally, we provided each participant with a detailed spreadsheet containing training titles, presenters' names, dates, locations, and the number of hours for the trainings they had attended. We also provided a flash drive with all the Credential forms and templates to each participant. Our making the process easier had immediate and clear results: armed with a lot of motivation, information, and support, our leader teachers went to work and most of them attained the Credential by the end of the semester. Some of the participants did not have a computer at home, so we loaned them laptops from the Far West GREAT Center technology kits. Others had a computer but no access to the Internet, so we made our training room available for them to come over and work on their Credential and submit their reflections.

Besides the above supports, we also hold "Credential Reflection Writing Parties!" We invite all teachers who have completed a PDPW but never finished the Credential. We hold the party in a computer lab and participants are required to write and submit at least two full reflections. In exchange for their effort, we provide them a free lunch. The Credential office sends us two staff members to assist the teachers and give them instant feedback on their reflections, and by the end of the day, the magic is done. Reflections are submitted and the now confident teachers get excited and continue working on their own. We also send the participants a weekly news email encouraging them, celebrating any completers we might have had during the previous week, mentioning that we had several teachers with 75 points, or 35, or whatever points they had earned recently. Teachers enjoy seeing their peers' progress recognized and tracked; there was one week when I was not able to send the weekly email and several called me to ask why not – they were expecting the emails and missed knowing the latest about their cohort.

Additionally, we often send them brief email notes congratulating them on getting a reflection approved, reminding them to review any reflections that might have been sent back for clarification, and so on.

A new credential completion is always an occasion for celebration at the Far West GREAT Center. We believe we are training teacher leaders because there seems to be something special about the teachers who are credentialed: is it more self-confidence, more poise, perhaps more dedication to their work, and pride in their accomplishments? We believe it's all of those things and more.

We have noticed that the credentialed teachers themselves are guiding, inspiring, and motivating other teachers to pursue their Credential. Some have mentioned that they now believe they can go back to school and get their master's degree. All readily agree that the Credential has helped them in many ways.

It seems that the secret of the Far West GREAT's success with getting teachers to complete their Adult Education Credential is rather simple: provide them good, solid training, help them establish a can-do frame of mind from the very beginning, guide them as much as possible through the initial phases, encourage and believe in them along the way, and celebrate each teacher as if they were our very first completer.

About the Author
Maria J. Cesnik is the Coordinator of the Far West GREAT Center in El Paso. She holds a Master's of Education degree from Ball State University in Muncie, IN. She has been instructional coordinator for Ysleta Community Learning Center and taught ESL for several years. She also serves on several advisory boards and councils related to adult education and staff development throughout the state of Texas.