AURORA, Colo. — A new program is creating a unique path to a teaching degree by giving future teachers real world experience.
It's part of the Aspiring Educators Pathway Program, Cherry Creek School District's new apprenticeship program. The district hopes by making a teaching degree more affordable and accessible for people in the community, it will bring in more people to the profession.
"They are changing lives. Not only mine. They are changing many lives," said Sandy Fernandez, an Aspiring Educator program participant.
Inside Woodland Elementary, kids have not one, but two teachers in this third grade class.
Natalia Borjes and Sandy Fernandez both work with students. And Borjes also helps to mentor Fernandez.
"It means a lot. It was a dream since I was in first grade," Fernandez said.
"When I was in high school, I told my dad, I said I want to become a teacher. And my dad said, like no way," Fernandez said. "But I had that dream locked in a small box. And this is the time where I was able to open that box again."
She's worked in schools for years.
But when Cherry Creek launched its new aspiring educator pathway program, friends encouraged her to apply.
"So I applied two minutes before closing," Fernandez said, laughing.
She was accepted and soon matched with Borjes as her teaching mentor.
In class, she helps teach the students. With the Community College of Aurora, Fernandez is the student.
The new teaching pathway is an apprenticeship teaching program, a route to a teaching degree the Colorado legislature approved last year.
Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Chris Smith said by the time Fernandez becomes a first-year teacher, she'll have 4,000 hours of teaching work under her belt.
"We tried to build it around the medical residency program, so really looking at what do you need to know before you're a first-year teacher. Because, when I was a first-year teacher, I was like whose dumb idea was this? I wasn't ready. I learned how to teach my first year. And so this is the opportunity we're giving them," Smith said.
Cherry Creek is the first district in the state to try something like this, put together with support from the Colorado Department of Education.
Smith hopes their model will be a blueprint for other districts around the state.
"And I believe not only is this going to be a game-changer for the state of Colorado, I think this is going to change the game of how we educate teachers across this country," Smith said. "I think it's a long time coming."
Borjes said with two teachers, students get more hands-on attention. And so does her mentee, Fernandez.
"But I think it's such a valuable opportunity for her to have that feedback, to learn and also just to celebrate her wins. Because you're not going to make it in the teaching world if you can't celebrate the little things and see the best in your day and the best in the lesson," Borjes said. "The classroom experience is invaluable. It’s an amazing opportunity.”
For Fernandez, working with kids in the classroom every day is more than just a future career, it's a second chance to fulfill her childhood dream.
"This is something that is a dream come true," Fernandez said. "Maybe it's not in the time I was expecting 20 years ago, but it's happening right now."
Right now, Cherry Creek has 16 aspiring educators in schools. By next year, they want 45. In four years, they hope to have more than 400.
Smith said this is a non-traditional path to teaching that's already bringing in a wide range of diverse candidates and making it easy for them to turn that dream into a reality.
And while the students are still paying tuition for the four year program to Community College of Aurora, Cherry Creek Schools will pay aspiring educators around $40,000 a year for their work as they go to school, in the schools. The district hopes it will make it affordable for people who want to teach.