Milledgeville Gets MAT Cohort
For the first time in its two-year history, Georgia College & State University’s Masters in the Art of Teaching, or MAT, program has a cohort on the GC&SU Milledgeville campus.
The one-year master’s program, which is an alternative teacher education program in which the participants get a T-5 certificate, has been based out of Macon for the past two years. The cohort consists of students with various bachelor degrees. These students go through the program together, taking the same graduate education classes and sharing their student teaching experiences with each other.
Dr. Cynthia Alby, the chair of the Department of Foundations and Secondary Education, is new to GC&SU’s MAT program but is excited about it nonetheless.
“It’s great to have two cohorts. This program is bigger than people thought it would be,” said Alby. “By having a cohort in Milledgeville, we will get more people who have just graduated from GC&SU.”
Alby, who received her bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and Philosophy from Xavier University, her master’s in Archaeology from the University of Cincinnati, and her doctorate in Language Education from UGA, thinks this program is fairly unique.
“UGA has a couple of cohort programs such as English Education, but there aren’t many others. GC&SU is becoming kind of famous for its cohort programs,” said Alby.
GC&SU has fairly large elementary and middle grades cohorts, but the cohort for secondary education is still relatively small. Dr. Alby thinks GC&SU is taking steps to change that.
“We’re getting more serious about preparing high school teachers. We already prepare a lot of elementary teachers,” said Alby. “I don’t think we’ve worked as hard at preparing high school teachers.”
Dr. Kevin Crabb, the Milledgeville MAT Cohort Leader, received his BS in Geography from the University of Southern Alabama, his MS in Geography from the University of Southern Mississippi, his MED in Social Science Education from GC&SU, and his EDD in Social Science Education from UGA. He came to GC&SU because of the MAT program.
“The MAT program appealed to me as a teacher. I had originally planned to return to teaching high school,” said Crabb, “but the description of the position and of the program appealed to me.”
Crabb describes the MAT program as “a field-based program where students are in contact in different school settings where these experiences are related to the graduate-level education classes, which train the teachers-to-be in curriculum, teaching methods, and technology.”
“The program is designed to give the prospective students a continuous amount of contact with students in various school settings,” said Crabb.
Crabb thinks the Milledgeville cohort will offer more opportunities to the community.
“It’s a greater opportunity for people in the community who want to be teachers to have access to the program,” said Crabb. “This opens up more spaces for people to get into the program. Our students can also be in more schools and with more teachers.”
If you are interested in the MAT program, stop by the main office in Kilpatrick or email Dr. Crabb at kcrabb@mail.gcsu.edu or Dr. Alby at calby@mail.gcsu.edu.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Sep 14 2001. Filed under News.
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