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Teach Toledo
is a collaboration between the University of Toledo and
Toledo Public Schools to assist Toledo-area citizens become
teachers by earning the Bachelor’s of Education degree
required to teach in Ohio.
Although there is no requirement that
graduates of the program teach in Toledo, the fact that
participants have roots in Toledo means that many of them
will choose to stay in the city after graduation.
One cohort II member,
Christopher Pettaway, grew up in Toledo’s North End, living
just one street over from Woodward High School. Pettaway
would have graduated as a Polar Bear, but his family moved
to the East Side so instead, he graduated from Morrison R.
Waite High School in 2018. Pettaway recalled high school
as having its “ups and downs,” laughing that he “went in
thinking it would be like [the movie] High School Musical,
but it wasn’t like that at all.” Overall, however, high
school “was a good experience for me.”
It was in high school
that Pettaway decided to become a teacher, in large part due
to the influence of Joshua Vance, Pettaway’s counselor at
Waite. “Mr. Vance told me I should be a teacher because I
have great community-mindedness.”
Vance led by example as
well. Pettaway recalled, “Mr. Vance really inspires me. He
breaks his back helping his students. He spends every
second, every minute putting himself into his job.”
Pettaway had other role models as well: “Growing up, I used
to look up to Dr. Durant, because he was great.” Both these
mentors inspire Pettaway’s goals of first becoming a teacher
and then becoming a school administrator.
Vance was also the
leader of Waite’s Young Men of Excellence, which
Pettaway cited as important to his development. “Most people
who grow up in urban areas, there’s a lack of mentorship.
Kids grow up not knowing how to be a man, how to have manly
qualities. It shows you how conduct yourself as a man, in
all situations.” Will Pettaway be involved in YMOE
when he is a teacher and administrator? “Of course, I’ll be
involved in that.”
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Like Pettaway, another
cohort II member, Estella Sutton, lived in Toledo as
a child. She attended Toledo Public Schools,
participating in track, basketball, and choir as a
student at Old West End Junior High in the 1980s.
When her family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan,
Sutton attended high school there. But then life
interrupted her school career.
Sutton was 42-years-old when she earned her GED. At
that point, she was determined not to let anything
interrupt her education. She recalled that time as
hard: “I lost my car, lost my house, and had to find
my kids a place to stay because I was homeless, but
I didn’t let that stop me from studying for that GED.”
Sutton worked for Kelloggs in Battle Creek for 15
years, and now is ready for a career change to
fulfill her passion: teaching. |
Estella Sutton earned her GED and worked
for fifteen years before deciding to go to college be become
a teacher. |
Sutton explained,
“Looking at the kids and what’s going on today with school
shootings is what made me decide to be a teacher. If kids
have a teacher who is caring and who prays—not with the kids
during school, but about them, before school—I think a
teacher can direct kids in a good way.” Sutton is inspired
by her experience founding and leading a girls’ club at the
junior high in Battle Creek. The club raised money to go on
trips, and in their afterschool meetings, they talked about
issues that the girls faced in daily life. Just as she was
there for the girls in the club, Sutton said that as a
teacher, “I want to be there for kids.”
Both Pettaway and Sutton
share the goal of becoming teachers and a commitment to
youth in their communities. They could pursue teaching
degrees at other universities or in the University of
Toledo’s regular program. But each believes Teach Toledo,
as a program specifically for citizens from the Toledo
community who want to teach in urban schools, is their best
choice.
Pettaway likes that the
program is “going directly where I wanted to go and getting
me directly to where I want to be.” Similarly, Sutton likes
that Teach Toledo “focuses on helping adults become
teachers. The focus is to help us graduate and guide us in
the right direction.” As adults with work responsibilities,
both appreciate that classes will all be in one room in one
building with easy access to parking and the bus stop. It
is also important to them that classes are always at the
same time, Monday through Thursday from 4:30-7 pm. As
Pettaway said, “I can still support myself financially while
moving forward.”
Sutton described the choice to go back to
school as part of a larger shift: “I moved everyone and
everything out of my life that was negative, and now
everything is positive. I prayed and I asked God what path
He wanted me to take, and this is where I’m at now.”
Asked what they would say to others
considering college through Teach Toledo and a career
in teaching, Pettaway said, “Don’t knock it till you try
it. Everything’s worth one good go.” Or as Sutton
admonished, “Go for it and stay focused!”
The University of Toledo’s
Teach Toledo cohort
II classes start on August 26, with a special orientation
during the week of August 19. There are still a few seats
available. Call or text Hamer at 419-283-8288, or visit
www.utoledo.edu/education/teachtoledo
if you are interested in joining.
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