News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena High School Junior Samantha DeCare, pictured right, presents her lesson plans for teaching about volcanoes to junior Alicia Ballor and teacher Sarah Bedford as part of the school's teaching academy.

ALPENA — Twenty-four Alpena High School students spent the year learning what it is like to become a teacher in the school’s teacher academy.

Launched in the fall, the teacher academy is part of the high school’s career and technical education programs, where students typically receive hands-on training to prepare them for a career or a trade.

Teacher Academy students spent the year learning about different methods of instruction, reading intervention strategies, and creating lesson plans. They were also assigned a teacher mentor at Ella White Elementary School, Thunder Bay Junior High School, or Alpena High School.

Teacher academy was originally developed to allow students to travel to nearby schools where they could observe a teacher in a classroom environment, but some changes were made because of coronavirus-related restrictions.

Teacher Sarah Bedford said technology was purchased for the classroom, including a Meeting Owl and a monitor for their classroom as well as for each of the mentor teacher classrooms. The Meeting Owl has a camera with a 360 view and connects students in Bedford’s classroom to their mentor teacher’s classroom.

Bedford said students also recorded themselves reading books and they created a playlist for mentor teachers to share with their students. Students also read books using Meeting Owl or Google Chat.

Junior Alicia Ballor said she read Ottie and the Star, which she said the students enjoyed. Ballor said while students wanted to know a little about the book, they were super interested in what she was doing as part of teacher academy.

Now that coronavirus restrictions have relaxed, teacher academy students are now able to visit classrooms in other schools. Bedford said the students will be headed to Ella White on Thursday to visit a mentor teacher there.

Ballor thinks the classroom visit will be her favorite part of the year. Ballor said both of her parents are teachers and she is still deciding whether she wants to be a teacher or pursue a career in pediatric physical therapy.

Noah Gagnon said he is interested in becoming a high school or college level math teacher.

“I find math really easy, so I think teaching math would be fun,” he said.

Gagnon said learning about how people learn and teaching techniques will stick with him the longest.

Bedford said there continues to be strong interest from students who want to take the class next year. She also said district officials are looking to make more certifications available to students in the future.

Bedford said she wants students who take the course to be inspired and consider returning to the community after college, hoping they will return to teach in the school district.

“It’s important to have these homegrown educators return if they’re willing, to better the community, and to bring a fresh perspective and it’s great to give them an early start, so they have an idea about whether or not it’s something that they would really like to pursue,” she said.

Teacher Academy was made possible through a $66,800 grant from the Michigan Department of Education, which helped pay for the technology, materials, and room decor needed for the class.