BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Baylor University is partnering with Robinson ISD to have paid teacher residents for the upcoming school year.
The yearlong internship allows for Baylor students to earn course credit while being a full-time employee in Robinson ISD.
This also addresses a bigger problem.
Robinson ISD says finding applicants for teaching positions is an issue across the state.
"Especially now where we want well prepared teacher candidates, and it's a time where it's hard to find good teachers to go in the classroom," said Robinson ISD assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction Colette Pledger.
Hannah Dennis is a senior at Baylor University.
"I lived in Ghana, Africa for a little bit and taught — that's where my love for teaching kind of started," Dennis said.
Now she's a teacher resident at Robinson Primary School.
She says she did a teacher assistant program with Baylor while she was working full time at another job.
"This year I’m able to focus less on an outside job, and more just on my education," Dennis said.
Callie Cox a Baylor senior, interning with Kim Bauman at Robinson High School.
She will teach six class periods a day — initially observing, then partner teaching and eventually leading the class on her own.
"Just having compensation and being rewarded for our hard work is really awesome this year," Cox said.
Robinson High School English Program Leader Kim Bauman says both students and teachers benefit from the program.
"But it also allows me to learn from them, I’ve been doing this awhile, but they come to the classroom with a lot of great ideas and experiences — so we all grow," she said.
It helps the students in the classroom, too.
“It allows for us to have smaller groups when the learning breaks down or there's gaps in their learning," Bauman said.
There is one Baylor student interning at each Robinson ISD school — the interns are being paid through a TEA strategic staffing grant.
