A-B Tech, in collaboration with UNC Asheville, will offer education classes for lateral entry middle and high school teachers starting in the fall semester.

The first class will meet one evening a week at three locations and the classrooms will be linked by videoconferencing.

Kate Lozier, adjunct instructor at A-B Tech, will team-teach the classes with Nancy Ruppert, Lateral Entry coordinator, at UNC Asheville.

“Currently, colleges and universities are training less than 50 percent of the teachers that are needed in the state of North Carolina. To fill the void of teachers, the State is hiring teachers with degrees in fields other than education and placing these lateral entry teachers in classes,” said Ruppert. “Thus, teachers seeking alternative licenses are increasing in North Carolina. So from a need to serve more teachers quicker, community colleges and universities are beginning to work together to meet the needs of our state teacher shortage. “

“This makes it simple for lateral entry teachers. It’s exactly what they need for licensure,” said Lozier. “We can provide non-threatening support focusing on their needs as beginning teachers.”

A series of four courses will offer consistency with regards to requirements, grading policies and attendance policies. Each course will include technology components, presentations, chapter outlines/tests, textbook assignments and assessments. The first course, Learning Theory, is offered at A-B Tech. All four courses will be offered in to enable lateral entry teachers to be certified within one year.

Each class will last eight weeks, and each semester will offer one theory class and one application class.

“The idea is that teachers have the opportunity to take all four courses in a year, or they can go in and out of the program and we’ll still be there,” said Ruppert. “Sometimes it’s hard to take all four courses in the first year of teaching."

“There are two things I really love about this,” said Lozier. “One is that we’re collaborating with UNC Asheville. The other is this will provide new lateral entry teachers with immediate resources that have success in the classroom.”

In order to register for the classes, students have to be employed as a teacher in a school and have a Regional Alternative Licensing Center plan of study. To register for the first course at A-B Tech, students may fill out the application online, print it and mail it to Gigi Derballa, A-B Tech, 340 Victoria Road, Asheville NC, 28801. The cost is $119.75, plus the cost of the textbook.

The first course will be from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays starting Aug. 22, in Room 105 in the Sycamore Building on the A-B Tech Asheville campus; in Building 4, Room 7 at McDowell Technical Community College, and at Tri-County Community College.

 Applications are available at www.abtech.edu/Student_Services/onlineapp.htm