News Photo by Julie Goldberg Alpena High School teacher Jennifer Spomer shows students different parts of a skeleton Tuesday.

ALPENA — Alpena High School students will have the opportunity next school year to learn what it’s like to be a teacher.

Alpena Public Schools recently received a $66,800 Early College Planning Grant from the state Education Department’s Office of Career and Technical Education to start offering Teacher Academy, a one-hour, yearlong course that will teach students everything about being a teacher.

“It’s for students who are interested in becoming a teacher, any kind of a teacher — elementary, secondary, special teacher, like art, music, school counselor, anyone working within schools,” Joyce McCoy, Alpena CTE director, said Tuesday.

Students will learn about human growth and development, along with how the mind develops in kids. They will also learn about legal issues when working within schools and learn about current teaching practices.

McCoy said the class is ideal for the district’s Early College Program, because students in the class will also take education classes at Alpena Community College. She said students can be almost done with an associate’s degree by the time they transfer to a four-year college.

“It’s a perfect program for Early College,” she said.

The grant will be used to provide a classroom space for staff and students.

Students will visit other Alpena schools to observe teachers in the classroom. McCoy said officials are looking into doing long-distance observation, through which they could have video set up at a different school and the students can watch at Alpena High.

“They can do some distance-learning and maybe not actually all have to be in that spot,” McCoy said.

Students will be assigned mentor teachers while taking the class.

The class should help increase the number of students interested in becoming a teacher, officials hope.

Michigan is experiencing a shortage in teachers, seen by the number of teaching certificates awarded.

In 2003-04, there were 9,664 teaching certificates. In 2015-16, only 3,696 teaching certificates were awarded, according to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. Teacher certificates are required before someone enters a classroom.

“We have to start growing our own,” McCoy said. “We find that some of our best teachers are those that have come through Alpena schools and come back, because they want to be here and they stay with us.”

McCoy said over 80 students have expressed interest in the class.

“It doesn’t mean that they’re all going to sign up for it, but it gave us enough of an encouragement to move forward,” she said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.