Great Barrington and Sheffield — Mount Everett Regional School teacher Kevin Wolgemuth recently became the first recipient of the Initial Early College Pedagogy Teaching Certification from Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the Early College Research Institute. Wolgemuth teaches ninth- through 12th-grade English at Mount Everett, where he has worked for 18 years.
In an interview with The Berkshire Edge, College Provost and Vice-President John Weinstein said the program takes about one to two years to complete. “There is an initial certification that enables the teacher to start teaching classes,” Weinstein said. “Doing that helps complete some of the other elements of the program. It can be completed at different paces. I think it could be a very attractive opportunity for teachers, who have so many years of experience, to do something new and different. They can complete the certification at whatever pace suits them.”
“During the summer, I took a course at Simon’s Rock with a lot of the teachers that were preparing for their classes for the semester,” Wolgemuth said. “We looked at writing and thinking in the classroom. Because of the course, I changed up the way I approached student writing in the classroom. Then I had an additional course with John about pedagogy at the college level. Those courses allowed me to step back again and reflect on what I was doing in the classroom, and find ways to ‘ratchet it up,’ take the ways I am teaching, and bring it to a higher level. So much of high school public education is teacher-directed, even though we want it to be student-centered. This has helped me find ways to step back and allow the students to take more control and have more ownership of the conversations and their presentations in the classroom. The program has given me a nice opportunity to reflect and step back on my teaching.”
Weinstein said that the program currently has five students enrolled, including Wolgemuth who is working towards final certification, and four other students working towards initial certification. “I think that this program offers a great opportunity for educators to step back and think about some new things about teaching,” Weinstein said. “Public school teachers are often very busy every single day. There isn’t always the luxury for them to step back and think about what they teach. This program offers new ways of teaching and instructional support. I hope it also offers the space that teachers need to think about what they teach.”
“The program has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone,” Wolgemuth said “It has also allowed me to meet with people from Simon’s Rock who have served as my mentors. They have helped to push education forward.”
