In 1999, the SC General Assembly, recognizing the shortage of teachers in our state, funded the Teaching Fellows Program for South Carolina. The mission of the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program is to recruit talented high school seniors into the teaching profession and help them develop leadership qualities. Each year, the program provides Fellowships for up to 200 high school seniors who have exhibited high academic achievement, a history of service to their school and community, and a desire to teach in SouthCarolina.
Teaching Fellows participate in advanced enrichment programs at Teaching Fellows Institutions, have additional professional development opportunities, and are involved with communities and businesses throughout the state. They receive up to $24,000 in fellowship funds (up to$6000 a year for four years) while they complete a degree leading to teacher licensure. The fellowship provides up to $5700 for tuition and board and $300 for specific enrichment programs administered by CERRA. All Teaching Fellows awards are contingent upon funding from the S.C. General Assembly. A Fellow agrees to teach in a South Carolina public school one year for every year he or she receives the Fellowship.
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Teaching Fellows at CCU

All Teaching Fellows will be required to attend a two-day Orientation program in the summer prior to starting classes. Regional school administrators and business representatives who serve on our advisory board will participate in this orientation. The program will specifically focus on identifying and explaining the experiential opportunities that are designed for Teaching Fellows, including advanced enrichment opportunities, professional development, and relevant involvement with communities and businesses. The common theme for our experiential opportunities will be a focus on tutoring, service learning, and projects related to improving literacy among students and throughout the community.

In addition to the general orientation, there will be team-building/relationship activities among the students, and with the director and other key individuals who will be working with the program. As emphasized in the Teaching Fellows Program literature, camaraderie is an emphasis of the program. It is not just a scholarship program, but also a program that provides opportunities to develop close relationships and leadership skills. Those aspects of the program will be introduced at orientation, and once the program is launched, our TF officers will take a major role in the orientation for incoming freshmen.

Coastal Carolina University provides opportunities for students to become involved in several organizations on a variety of participant and leadership levels. In addition to becoming familiar with these organizations during freshman orientation,. These opportunities extend from freshman through senior year.

In addition, the Dean of the Spadoni College of Education, Program Coordinators, and all members of our Teaching Fellow Advisory Board and College Board of Visitors will be instrumental in providing leadership opportunities to our Teaching Fellows. Specifically, Teaching Fellows will be required to serve as representatives and possibly officers on the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, the Spadoni College Teacher Education Advisory Committee and the Student South Carolina Education Association. In addition to these required activities, Teaching Fellows will have opportunities to interact with leaders across campus through seminars and educational events held at the Biddle Center for Community Engagement and the Center for Teaching Excellence to Advance Learning (CeTEAL). Several community leaders serve on our Board of Visitors who will also provide opportunities for students to observe, volunteer and become involved in service learning experiences through their organizations.

Teaching Fellows in Service Learning

CCU Teaching Fellows are required to fulfill 30 service hours for each year of their fellowship. These service hours should be spent in direct contact with children and/or families. This year 35 of our Teaching Fellows spent two hours a week in an assigned classroom at Homewood Elementary. Two of our newest fellows are completing their hours at Carolina Forest High and Scholars Academy.

Looking at next year, it is our goal to spread this opportunity for service learning throughout many local schools. We would like our students to have the opportunity to expand their professional relationships and understanding of their appropriate content area. Their placements will need to be carefully planned through partnerships with school district personnel. Our fellows should be specifically placed with teachers who are inclined to mentor and would like to develop a long term mentoring relationship with a stellar future teacher.

Goals for the Teaching Fellows of Coastal Carolina University in the Collaborative Relationship with Partnering Schools

  1. Create a Teaching Fellows professional learning community or PLC. This unique kind of professional learning community (PLC) will be made up of likeminded college students who intend to teach in South Carolina that are given the opportunity to share, learn, and grow together. This PLC includes the CCU Teaching Fellows serving as apprentices, a collegial team of practicing teachers serving as master teachers, and administrators from the school site and the University. This PLC will be united by their commitment to improving student achievement and teacher instruction.
  2. The Teaching Fellows will complete service hours required by the Teaching Fellow program in a meaningful and purposeful way. Creating this partnership will allow Fellows to interact with diverse populations in their area, better preparing them to teach children of different cultural and economic backgrounds. It will promote multicultural awareness and an appreciation of the state’s diverse population including rural and urban populations. Participating in the PLC will also provide the Teaching Fellows with a Practicum Placement in a classroom early in their University training.
  3. Becoming an important member of a classroom community on a weekly basis throughout the entire school year will provide the teaching fellows opportunities for technology education for the purpose of improving student achievement; and professional development to ensure that Coastal Carolina University faculty members have current information on educational trends, pedagogy, teaching standards, and student achievement standards.
  4. By participating in the PLC, the Mentor Teachers at various schools will model the image and esteem of the teaching profession, promote and develop innovation and reform in education, and ultimately develop their own educational leadership.
  5. The students at various schools will benefit from energy, enthusiasm, commitment and pedagogical knowledge that the Teaching Fellows bring from the University to the classroom each week.

These goals will be accomplished by the following:

  1. Each CCU Teaching Fellow will be assigned to a Mentor Teacher for at least one school year.
  2. The Teaching Fellow will visit the classroom for a minimum of 2 hours a week (this schedule will be dependent on the Teaching Fellows class schedule and the Mentor Teacher’s schedule).
  3. The Mentor Teacher may assign weekly duties to best meet the needs of his/her students and the initiative of the Teaching Fellow.
  4. The Teaching Fellows Campus Director will be available for consultation and support for all members of the PLC.

Teaching Fellows may be assigned to the following duties throughout the year:

  1. Observe teaching
  2. Develop lesson plans and gather materials
  3. Teach a small group of students
  4. Teach individual students
  5. Teach whole group of students
  6. Participate and plan school events or family involvement

Meet Two of CCU’s Freshman Fellows

Caitlyn

Alex