“I have been battling for years to get this going and we finally got a taker in Lycoming college to help us,” said Superintendent Mr. Dan Taormina about Education 215, or So You Want to be a Teacher?
Taormina will be co-teaching the class with Spanish teacher Mrs. Andrea Tira. Taormina and Tira said they were very excited about the number of students that showed up to the informational meeting about the class, which was held in the LGI.
In addition to Education 215, the school board has approved two other new class options, which will be available in the 2025-2026 school year, for the upcoming juniors and seniors: The Cold War, and Medical Terminology.
“I think it’s important that you get some college credit if you’re going into this field,” Taormina said.
Education 215 will be a dual enrollment class partnered with Lycoming College. Students will have the opportunity to earn two college credits while also getting valuable teaching experience through the observation trips to Lyter Elementary School and McCall Middle School.
“[Lycoming] runs their Education course from August to October but we’re running it from September till the end of the school year,” said Tira. “So we have a lot more room to add content and what we like about that is we can get really creative about how we build the second half of our year.”
Tira explained that from September to December the class will run alongside the Lycoming College class and they will receive the syllabus and lesson plans from the teacher at Lyco. Once the new year starts, however, they will begin the more hands-on aspects of teaching such as lesson planning, grading, and even teaching a real class in the elementary and middle schools.
“I’m excited to take this class because I want to get the experience of teaching others before going to college,” said sophomore Emilia Minotti. “I think it will be helpful for my career path.”
Minotti said she wants to be a school teacher or counselor and she thinks that this class will help her learn how to give presentations in front of a class without being scared.
Another new class offered next school year that will help students in their future career path is Medical Terminology, taught by science teacher Mrs. Morgan Solomon.
“I’m currently already teaching [Medical Terminology] within my Medical Careers course, but I decided to add an extra half credit course for students that might not know if they want to go into healthcare,” said Solomon. “Being exposed to that terminology could spark an interest in them that they didn’t know they had before.”
Solomon said that the course is not required in order for students to take Medical Careers their senior year, however it will be helpful to know this information for that course.
“If I was able to teach [Medical Terminology] to juniors before they come into Med Careers, it would give me more time in the classroom for Med Careers students to do more hands-on activities,” said Solomon.
“I’m really excited to take this class,” said sophomore Emma Tawney. “I always wanted to do something in the medical field.”
Tawney said she hopes to get a better understanding of medical vocabulary and anatomy and be exposed to more in-depth medical classes before taking Med Careers.
Solomon said that it will be a very vocab-heavy course and there will be lots of memorization involved.
Students who aren’t interested in teaching or the sciences still have another option. The Cold War, taught by Social Studies teacher Mr. Jacob Wasilko, will be a half credit course covering the events leading up to, and aftermath, of the Cold War.
“It was an ideological war, and I’m hoping students are able to get an understanding of how history and its events still have an affect on us today and have a lasting impact,” said Wasilko.
Wasilko said the class will include mostly lecture based study, however there will also be a number of projects that students will work on as well.
“Something I’m looking forward to is trying to get students to be more creative in their learning and become more involved in class participation,” said Wasilko.
Wasilko said students have expressed interest and he is confident that there will be enough students to teach the class.
Junior Reese Peterson is one of the students excited to take the Cold War class next school year.
“I love the Cold War,” said Peterson. “It’s such an interesting historical conflict and there’s a lot of content to cover.”
Featured Image (at top): Superintendent Mr. Dan Taormina and Spanish teacher Mrs. Andrea Tira discuss logistics and scheduling plans for trips to Lyter Elementary School and McCall Middle School that will be included in the Education 215 class. Both teachers worked with board members and counselors to get the Education class approved for the 2025-2026 school year.
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