Former Reading Corps tutor, Crystal, remembers the exact moment her career path changed forever. Nearing the end of her second year in the program, she was thinking over her options for the future. She knew she wanted to keep helping local students for all four years that AmeriCorps allows members to serve, but then? She wasn’t sure.
“So, I was just wondering what I would be doing, and someone just said offhand ‘Well, there’s this MNGOT thing…’” she recalls.
The Right Option at the Right Time
Minnesota Grow Your Own Teacher, or MNGOT for short, is an accelerated and affordable teacher pathway program that lets Reading Tutors combine their AmeriCorps service with a master’s program in education from the University of Minnesota. For those tutors who are accepted into the program, MNGOT allows them to spend two years earning their degree and a K-6 Elementary Education license, all while getting great experience with students as Reading Tutors.
For Crystal, the suggestion planted a seed that is growing into a rewarding career in teaching. Becoming a teacher seemed like a promising way to combine her interest in working with children, while still serving the greater community. She decided to take the plunge and got accepted into the program in 2022. That fall, she returned to the same elementary school for her third year of service as a tutor and also began her M.Ed. course work.
That year, Crystal continued helping students build foundational reading skills at school, while learning new skills herself at the university, including taking education courses, doing fieldwork, and acting as a student teacher. For her fourth and final year, she split her time between tutoring and teaching. The holistic range of experiences combined with comprehensive coursework thrilled Crystal.
“I got hooked in with the science of reading, but then there were other parts of teaching that started to make sense to me, like the soft skills,” she says. “The more I got into it, the more affirming it was. It really solidified my career plans.”
Turning Hopes into Reality
Those plans became reality in 2024. Crystal graduated from the University of Minnesota in May, spent the summer applying to teaching positions near her hometown, started new teacher orientation in August, and walked into her very own classroom on September 3rd. She feels like the first semester was a total whirlwind but simply loves the work. Even when she’s not working, her students are never far from her mind.
Now settled in as a second-grade teacher, Crystal is grateful for the ways that different lessons and experiences she had through MNGOT helped prepare her for teaching full-time, such as the program’s focus on student data. While the learning curve for keeping detailed statistics on student achievement was steep, those skills are paying dividends now that manage goal setting, observations, and data tracking on a whole classroom of students. Additionally, the range of different classes she got to lead as a student teacher, like phys ed, art, and music, have all allowed her to enrich her core lesson plans.
“This morning, I was able to work in Boom Whackers (a music technique) during the activity portion. My second-grade class had a great time,” she says. “There is a lot of pressure on teachers to raise the math and reading levels, but I appreciated getting ideas and tips for working in these other important topics.”
The Beginning of a Rewarding Career
With a rock-solid foundation and a great start, Crystal has a bright future ahead of her in teaching. For anyone thinking of making the jump into elementary education, she believes wholeheartedly that MNGOT lays out a great pathway.
“I would recommend it! I think it’s a really fabulous first step to being a teacher, because otherwise it’s overwhelming to think about how the finances are going to come together for a degree,” she says. The decision worked out perfectly for Crystal. “Being a second-grade teacher is funny, quirky, exhausting, and wonderfully different every day. I’m tired getting to work in the mornings but wouldn’t want to be any other place!”
If you’re hoping to teach one day like Crystal, Reading Corps is a great first step to getting in-school experience; find openings for tutors near you at join.readingandmath.org. And for any Reading Tutors considering elementary education, you can learn more about MNGOT and apply at our website here.