Finding
the Middle Ground with Alternative Master's Degrees in Alabama
Highschool:
junior year. The small classroom is full of brilliant students who fully
appreciated their own abilities. I was enrolled in a dual AP course which
taught World History and English literary analysis. As students in an advanced
placement course at a private educational co-op, we wrote an average of three
to six papers a week and we struggled through the work load. But despite the
onslaught of academic analysis and carefully researched historical papers, we
learned. Not only did I learn the essentials, I developed a passion for
learning history. Likewise, my literary
analysis cultivated my ability to deliver well argued essays to make even my
college business law professor impressed. But I'm convinced it was not the
tests that drove me to learn, nor was the curriculum so compelling. My teacher inspired me to reach where I am
today.
Was
my teacher a fluke of the system? She worked part time as a professor at a
nearby university, studied in England for her Master's degree, and was
completely in love with history. As far as I know, she never attended an
educational course on child psychology, or secondary education must-knows. She
was not trained as a teacher, she was trained as a historian. My teacher was a
subject matter expert and it enabled her to spread that love of her field to
her students. Would her style has been so effective in an elementary school or
a middle school classroom? What is the other side to the story?
My
mother earned her Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees in Early Childhood
Education from the University of Montevallo. She later earned an Educational
Specialist degree from UAB and is currently an Alabama state certified Reading
Specialist (N-12) qualified to teach Early Childhood (P-3) and Elementary (1-6)
Education. Her subject matter expertise is teaching children. As a person with
firsthand experience, she is extremely good at her job. When a student has a
problem understanding a history reading assignment, she doesn't explain the
historical context, she asks them to read it slower, or read in their head like
they were speaking out loud. Her current students love her, not for the passion
she has for her subject, but for her strong dedication to them. So where is the
middle ground between dedication to one field, while still knowing exactly how
to educate students? How does Alabama find that middle ground?
Alternative
Master's Degrees are one means through which an individual who received a
Bachelor degree in a field unrelated to education can enter the educational
field. Most Alabama universities with undergraduate programs in education offer
an optional fifth year program in which students earn their Alternative
Master's degree in early childhood, elementary, or secondary education.
Generally these programs also include the certification process for the Alabama
State Department of Education, so that by graduation, every student is prepared
to enter the educational workforce.
The
University of Montevallo boasts an incredible graduate education program for
the Alternative Master's Degree.
Partnered with the subject matter undergraduate degree, the alternative
masters program is a practical approach which develops a love for the subject
in the educator while incorporating knowledge of how to develop individualized
learning plans, teach to different learning styles, and nurture a love of
literacy.
