[365] MTeach Recruits Future Teachers for Growing Program March 22

Release date: March 21, 2011

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
MTeach contact: Leigh Gostowski, 615-898-5786 or gostowsk@mtsu.edu

MTeach Recruits Future Teachers for Growing Program March 22

(MURFREESBORO) — Growing from zero students to 76 appears to be outstanding progress for the first-year MTSU MTeach Program.
Freshmen Alex Herrera of Manchester and Shelby Bales of Murfreesboro are just two of the 76 students excited about the program.
“This is one of the most amazing programs to be in if you want to be a teacher,” said Bales, a chemistry major.
“They walked in (at CUSTOMS) and handed out a flyer,” Bales said. “It looked interesting. They have a really great staff. Everybody is amazing. They work with you. They have ideas. You can bounce ideas off them.”
Herrera, a biology major, adds that MTeach is a “really good program for anyone who wants to go into the science field. It makes us think out what we want to teach kids. It tests our knowledge. We learn something new every day. The instructors are very good at helping you, knowing what you need.”
MTeach Program Coordinator Leigh Gostowski and master teachers Sally Millsap and Mark LaPorte hope to witness more growth, especially after their open house Tuesday, March 22, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Cason-Kennedy Nursing Building Room 123.
MTSU received a five-year, $1.925 million grant to help launch MTeach in late 2009. The university was one of four across the state chosen to replicate the successful UTeach program at the University of Texas at Austin. It is designed to increase the quality of mathematics and science teachers in Tennessee and the nation.
For more information, call 615-898-5786 or go online to www.mtsu.edu/mteach/.

###
Media welcomed.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

For MTSU news and information, go online to mtsunews.com.