Week of 4-17-2023

Inside this issue

• TAKE ACTION NOW on a PSEA legislative priority: Invest in “Grow Your Own” programs that help paraprofessionals and other school support staff become teachers
• Voice preview: ESP locals experiment with “Grow Your Own” teacher programs
• Take courses on PSEA’s PEARL professional learning platform
• Member Benefits spotlight: URL Life Insurance

Across Pennsylvania, there are many education support professionals who want to become teachers, but who can’t envision overcoming the economic and family-related hurdles to do it.

To help talented people who are already working in our schools get their teaching degrees, we should create new pathways to the profession and open the door to great teachers who might otherwise never make their way to a classroom.

“Grow Your Own” programs offer incentives to support professionals and make it easier for them to complete teacher preparation programs. After they finish their college education, they return to the schools where they began their careers and continue them as teachers.

Creating these “Grow Your Own” programs is a PSEA priority, and we are working with lawmakers to pass a law to make this idea a reality.

In fact, on Monday, the House Education Committee plans to vote on House Bill 688, which would create a “Grow Your Own” program to make it easier for support professionals like Jermaine Bailey to pursue teaching degrees and return as teachers to the schools where they currently work.

Click the button below to contact your state representative today and ask them to support House Bill 688:

Voice preview: ESP locals experiment with “Grow Your Own” teacher programs

Ky Delinko, a fifth grade reading specialist in the Reading School District, was the first to take advantage of Reading’s new “Grow Your Own” program.

Speaking of “Grow Your Own” programs, we feature a story in the May issue of Voice on two ESP locals that have recently introduced them – Reading and East Stroudsburg – both of which bargained language in their contracts to create pathways to becoming a certified teacher for those who might otherwise not have the option. Each took a slightly different approach, but both are already bearing fruit with interested support professionals making the leap to full teacher certification.

You can click the link below to read that full story now or look for the print version to hit your mailbox in the next week or two.

Click here to see a detailed breakdown of all PSEA legislative priorities.

Visit PEARL today and choose from more than 95 asynchronous courses available for Act 48 credit and Chapter 14 verification.

Here are just a few of the dozens of courses you can explore right now on PEARL:

• Schoology in Practice: Essentials for Beginners
• Time Management and Organization for Online Learning
  
• Social and Emotional Learning is for Us, Too!
  
• Building and Maintaining a Humanized Classroom
  
• Assessment and Treatment of Anxiety Across the Developmental Spectrum
• Seesaw Basics & Advanced
• And many more...

URL Insurance Group is the life insurance provider for PSEA members and their families. URL understands that it shouldn’t take a lifetime to apply for life insurance coverage. That’s why they offer the ability to get instant-decision life insurance.

PSEA members and family members (ages 18-60) can now get a term life insurance quote in seconds and be insured in minutes, all from a smartphone. Coverage starts at $50,000 and goes up to $1.5 million. No doctors, no hassles, no waiting. If you’re over the age of 60 or have kids and/or grandchildren under the age of 18, URL has you covered as well.

Click the link below to access the instant quote and instant decision life insurance:

Click for a quote

Or, click the link below if you prefer to have a consultation regarding life insurance options:

Click for a consultation with a PSEA Life Insurance Specialist