From l-r: The 2014 California Retired Teacher Association Award winners, Finley Balma and Gabrielle Sharaga with Gevirtz School Dean Jane Close Conoley.
The California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) awarded scholarships to two outstanding graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School. Finley Balma is the recipient of the Laura E. Settle Scholarship for a Multiple Subject Teacher credential candidate. Gabrielle Sharaga is the recipient of the Anne & Harry Scales Scholarship for a Single Subject Teacher credential candidate. Both students are Masters Degree candidates in the Teacher Education Program at the Gevirtz School. The students were presented their awards at a dinner held by the California Retired Teachers Association in Santa Barbara on May 19.
Anne Scales, after whom the Single Subject Teacher credential candidate scholarship is named, was a counselor at Santa Barbara High School for 32 years prior to her retirement. Scales believes that it is important for a teacher to have an enthusiasm for life and teachers should bring a broad base of interests and experiences into the classroom. In an interview she commented that teachers “should not only teach, but also be interested in helping young people.” Recipients of the Laura E. Settle Scholarships must not only have outstanding academic records but also a record of exemplary character and citizenship.
UCSB’s Teacher Education Program offers the Multiple-Subject, the Single-Subject (in 6 content areas), the Level I Education Specialist Moderate/Severe Teaching Credential, and an M.Ed. in Teaching. The programs are run as a cohort, with the elementary and secondary cohorts no larger than 60 students each, and the special education cohort no larger than 15. Candidates are placed in partner K-12 schools throughout the 9-month academic year, student teaching in the morning and attending university classes in the afternoon/evening. The Teacher education Program is unique in that many of its faculty both supervise candidates in the field and teach university courses. The result is a cohesive, well-articulated program of study that takes candidates through each developmental phase of learning to teach.