Iowa City schools’ program inspiring students to teach

IOWA CITY — Tate High School senior Ivan Bryson might someday want to be a teacher.

That’s why Bryson, 17, is enrolled in the Iowa City Community School District’s “Educators Rising” program, a curriculum for students to learn about the profession and explore career opportunities, develop skills and make informed decisions about pathways to becoming a teacher.

On Tuesday, Bryson and other students from Tate High visited Lucas Elementary School, where they lend a hand weekly to teachers in math, science, music, art and special education classes.

Although Bryson insists he’s “not good with kids,” he also said that since being in the Educators Rising program, he’s been stopped while out and about in the community and thanked by younger students and even a parent for his helpfulness in the classroom.

About 350 high school students this year indicated their interest in education as a career on a districtwide survey, said Carmen Gwenigale, Iowa City schools’ director of curriculum and instruction — a large increase in awareness. About 54 percent of these students are white, 19 percent Black, 13 percent Hispanic or Latino and 12 percent Asian, she said during an Aug, 22 presentation to the Iowa City school board.

Last academic year, 25 students across the district’s four high schools participated in the Educators Rising program, which launched in the spring of 2022. Four of those students have now graduated high school and are pursuing teaching degrees in college.

District officials expect the program to support students interested in teaching careers, especially students of color, as a part of the district’s Grow Our Own program, a part of its diversity, equity and inclusion plan.

District officials also hope it will help attract students back to the district as teachers, where they could help diversify the teaching staff. About 7 percent of teachers in the Iowa City school district are people of color, while 43 percent of the district’s students are people of color.

Iowa City graduates from the Educators Rising program who later graduate college with a teaching degree are promised a job in the district if one is available.

“We want to make sure we can bring them back into our district as teachers,” Gwenigale said.

Exauce Luzolo, 19, who graduated last spring from Iowa City West High School, is one of those students pursuing a degree in elementary education at the University of Iowa. He joined the program because of the “outstanding teachers at Iowa City West,” he said.

Luzolo was “inspired to devote my life to helping others” by a teacher at West High who helped him when he was struggling to get a passing grade in math and biology while learning online because of the pandemic during the 2020-21 school year. Not only did a teacher spend hours of extra time with him on Zoom helping him study, she also gave coats, boots, gloves, scarves and even candy to students in need, Luzolo said.

Luzolo, who also is pursuing an endorsement in math and English Language Learning, wants to work as an elementary teacher in the Iowa City district after college.

Students in the Educators Rising program meet weekly with teacher sponsors at their high schools to learn about the school system, lesson planning, student engagement, using data to inform instruction and Iowa Teaching Standards, among other things. Workshops also are taught by Iowa City district staff in the topics of cultural competence, fairness, equity and diversity, ethics and social justice and advocacy.

Students are encouraged to enroll in Kirkwood Community College’s Education Academy to earn free college credit while they’re in high school and to further explore their career interest.

Encouraging students to take college classes while in high school will help them gain “academic confidence,” said Michelle Curry, a Tate High teacher and an Educators Rising sponsor. Doing this also could open the door to students getting a substitute teacher license while in college and gaining experience while getting paid, she said.

Curry said she was interested in sponsoring the Educators Rising program because she was 38 when “I decided to be a teacher when I grew up,” she said. That was 11 years ago.

Curry said a lot of her students are “soured” on school, a feeling she understands since she also didn’t like school as a student. The Educators Rising program “excites me because it gives kids the chance to start thinking of themselves as the people they’re surrounded by every day,” she said.

Curry, who teaches African American Literature, said one of her lessons focuses on structural barriers for people of color pursuing a teaching career.

“When we desegregated schools, all the African American teachers lost their jobs,” Curry said. “It could not be more important to me that we have local kids and local kids of color be able to walk into our classrooms and be the teacher they needed to other students in the future.”

Maria Angulo, a Spanish teacher at City High and the school’s Educators Rising sponsor, said she is constantly thinking of ways to inspire her students the way she was inspired by her teachers. Growing up in Chicago, Angulo, who is Latina, said she had a lot of teachers who looked like her. She felt “privileged” to have that experience.

“I recognize that wasn’t normal for everyone,” she said.

Having teachers who reflect the diversity of the student body is important. Equally important is for school districts to have supports in place for teachers of color to stay in the profession, Angulo said.

“Teaching is hard enough already,” Angulo said.

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Students in the Educators Rising program at Tate High are exploring what it would look like to be a teacher by visiting Lucas Elementary.

C.J. Carter, 17, a senior at Tate, said while he’s unsure if he wants to be a teacher, he was always intrigued by the way teachers are able to relate to their students.

Leslie Acevedo, 17, also a senior at Tate, is sure teaching is her career. path. “It’s one of my passions,” she said.

Tate High senior Emily Ortiz, 17, said she is inspired to pursue a career as a teacher because of the way her teachers didn’t give up on her when she needed extra help.

Trista Jennings, 16, a junior at Tate High, also said she wants to be a teacher to “help people.” While she initially thought she was interested in being a therapist or psychiatrist, she realized “being a teacher — you could change a kids’ life,” she said.

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