Members of the Ozarks Teacher Corps learned about the real-world experiences of the program’s first graduates, now teaching in rural Ozarks districts, and sought advice from veteran educators during the group’s quarterly seminar Thursday.

They discussed situations unique to rural districts: Albert Bryant recounted how he’s handling having seven relatives – including a younger brother – attending the Everton school where he teaches math. And they talked about feelings universal to first-year teachers: Morgan Mais described her nerves before her first set of parent-teacher conferences in Monett.

This was the first opportunity for the OTC graduates to share their professional experiences with the junior and senior teacher-education majors in this Rural Schools Partnership program that offers $4,000 annual scholarships in return for a commitment to teach for at least three years in a rural Ozarks district after graduation.

Many of the comments and questions were very practical – tips for managing a classroom, making discipline consistent, getting along as the “new kid” among longtime colleagues who in some cases were their own teachers in their hometown schools.

Other advice was more philosophical: “When you graduate you feel prepared, and then when you get in there, it’s a whole different ballgame,” Mais said. “Always keep in mind that it’s going to be really tough that first year.

“You have to teach yourself how to leave things at school,” she said she learned early.  “Teach yourself how to leave stuff at school so you have your own life and not always bring that home.”

Bryant advised the aspiring teachers to find a confidante among their new colleagues.

“Find someone you can trust in and talk to honestly who has a genuine heart for the students,” he said. “If you don’t believe that every student can be better, then you shouldn’t be a teacher.”

His comments echoed earlier remarks by Chadwick Co-Superintendent Dr. Bill Wheeler, who described “partners” as one of the four “P’s” he recommends to new teachers along with passion, purpose and place.

“There’s often one person between poverty and prosperity,” Wheeler said. “Part of your role is going to be working with those students from low socio-economic backgrounds who are in poverty. Their success comes from learning and from your passion for what happens in the classroom. Most students are not going to care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

The issues associated with rural poverty resonated in the comments from the day’s other speakers – Dr. Lyn Forester,  dean of a master’s of education program at Doane College in Nebraska; and Robert Mahaffey, director of communication for the Rural School and Community Trust, a sponsor of the OTC program.

They described the challenges facing rural districts in terms of poverty, the influx of non-native English speaking students; the encroachment of urban issues like gangs and drugs; and the frustrations with federal education policies and funding that favor urban districts.

“It’s not only the school districts that don’t know how to cope, the communities don’t know how to cope, either,” Forester said. “The churches actually have stepped up in bringing those populations together,  but there are some towns in real trouble.”

She noted, however, that there are many attractive qualities to being a rural educator, including the natural beauty and cultural richness of rural areas and the opportunity to make more lifelong connections and impact on students and parents in a smaller town.

“You need to be a learner,” she said, “especially about someone different from yourself; think deeply about the differences in what you believe and what they believe and figure out some connections.”

For more information about the Ozarks Teacher Corps, visit their page.