Award-winning LHS Teaching Professions Academy students with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria at the Educators Rising Conference.
By Andrea Conner
Take 40 Loveland High School (LHS) students with a passion for education and a teacher with a vision to not only provide rich course offerings for students but also help develop future educators, and you have Loveland’s new Teaching Professions Academy (TPA). That’s right – in Loveland, we are teaching Tiger students how to become Tiger teachers for their future careers.
This program, designed and instructed by Bre Sambuchino, gives our high school students the unique opportunity to make real-world connections between the curriculum and instructional strategies they study in this new class when they apply them to field-placement experiences within our district. From Loveland Elementary School to Loveland Intermediate School, TPA students get hands-on experience learning the different skills teachers must possess to be successful at the various levels of student development. TPA students work together to prepare real, vibrant lessons for our young Tigers – taking care and pride in representing their program with professionalism.
A table-top sized tree quickly grew with various versions of what might be the best technique to use to create a tree that both captured the passion of the group while still making certain it was versatile enough to be transported.
The pinnacle of the program’s successful first year was evident on March 15 when the TPA students and Ms. Sambuchino traveled to the EdRising Ohio conference at Ohio Dominican. TPA students participated in various speaking and lesson-planning competitions and worked as a group to create their chapter display with the theme “Where do we grow from here?” A table-top sized tree quickly grew with various versions of what might be the best technique to use to create a tree that both captured the passion of the group while still making certain it was versatile enough to be transported. “Their ideas continued to grow with the tree!” commented Sambuchino.
The conference and the tree certainly delivered in true LHS TPA fashion! The tree won first place (chapter display), and LHS Senior Maddy Butts won second place in the STEM lesson planning and delivery competition teaching a robust “states of matter” lesson to her field placement class. She is now a National Qualifier, and she will be competing in Orlando, Fla., in June. In addition to these accolades, Loveland High School’s program was awarded as an Honors Chapter, one of 12 out of 64 total state chapters. The students, along with their award-winning tree, even made State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria’s Twitter feed!
Success like this isn’t based on luck. It is the result of focused, strategic effort; the LHS TPA is the first of a series of Academic Pathways the Loveland City School District is developing to prepare our students for tomorrow, today. It is our mission, in action – and – it is award-winning.
RP Diamond Printing & Embroidery
