TTU offers flexible teaching certification
Texas Tech University Academic Advisor Michele Hicks poses for a photo at the TTU at Highland Lakes campus in Marble Falls. Hicks recently announced the university’s alternative teaching certification program, which kicks off this summer. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Texas Tech University is offering an alternative teaching certification program, which residents can take online via the Highland Lakes campus, 806 Steve Hawkins Parkway in Marble Falls. Students with bachelor’s degrees can acquire a teaching certification through a combination of flexible online courses and a paid internship with a local school district.
Classes begin in June and continue through the summer 2023 semester. After finishing the courses, students can begin a paid internship as early as this fall at a local school district, where they will be paired with a district mentor and teach for an entire academic year. After that is complete, they will receive their TTU teaching certification.
“This is the best of all worlds. Students are getting top-notch instruction and supervision, and they get into a classroom quickly in a paid position,” said TTU Academic Advisor Michele Hicks in a media release. “We are not cutting corners or sacrificing quality.”
The course costs $8,000, but students will receive full teacher’s pay during their internship. Hicks noted that students with high grade-point averages could qualify for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, which awards up to $4,000 a year to those seeking a teaching credential.
Students acquiring the TTU certification will have completed 18 of the 36 hours required for a master’s degree, Hicks said.
“We need great teachers,” she told DailyTrib.com. “Our kids deserve the best, and we need to put great teachers in the class, not just warm bodies.”
For more information on the teaching certification, financial aid, or how to apply, contact Hicks at michele.hicks@ttu.edu or 830-798-8598.
