the Magazine, Volume 2 Issue 2 - The College of Coastal Georgia

A Teacher’s CommitmentDr. Michael Hazelkorn takes the reigns of the School of Education and Teacher PreparationTo the new Dean of the School of Educationand Teacher Preparation, Dr. MichaelN. Hazelkorn, teaching is fun – and alsopotentially messy.“I remember when I was teaching art to agroup of elementary children with behavioraland emotional problems. I was trying to unscrewa container of black tempera paint for an artproject that we were working on. Needless tosay, the supposedly washable paint and mybrand new yellow shirt were a big hit for the restof the day,” he laughs. “Sometimes everythingdoesn’t work out exactly as we want. But, thebeauty is that we can reflect on what we’ve doneand come back tomorrow and do a better job.You have to roll with the punches and, most ofall, be flexible.”Dr. Hazelkorn has teaching experience inelementary, middle, and high schools in Florida and Georgia,as well as having served as an assistant superintendent ofpersonnel and pupil services in Wisconsin. He moved tothe Golden Isles from Carrollton, Georgia, where he wastenured professor and former chair of the Department ofSpecial Education and Speech-Language Pathology at theUniversity of West Georgia.“My vision for Coastal Georgia’s School of Education andTeacher Preparation is to graduate educators who want toteach, are qualified to teach, and will make a difference inthe classroom,” Dr. Hazelkorn says.“The School is a young program. We’ll soon have a modelfacility – The Correll Center for Teacher Education andLearning. The new center is critical, not just because ofour need for more space and state-of-the-art classroomtechnology, but also because of what it tells the stateand our community – how engaged Coastal Georgia willbe in preparing teachers for the most critical areas ourstate needs.”His goal is to maintain the quality of what has beenestablished and grow the program in concert with theavailability of jobs. That may mean graduates possiblyrelocate, he contends, in order to find jobs in their chosenprofession. He also expects to recruit teachers from all overthe state, retaining the best, graduating them, and sendingthem back to work in their own hometowns.“I want parents andstudents across the state,when looking for a teachereducation program –especially one that givesthem dual certification inearly childhood educationand special education, ormiddle grades education,or a program in secondarymath or biology education– to give Coastal Georgia along, hard look,” he says.“How children learn haschanged,” he continues.”We want our studentsout in the real-worldenvironment of K-12classrooms every day to experience that difference.”“Teaching is not for the faint of heart. If you want to be ateacher so that you your day ends at 3:30 or 4 p.m. and youhave your summers off, think again. It is a lot of hard work,but the payoff is worth it. Knowing that you can impact somany lives for the better – that is what makes you want tocome back day after day,” he reflects.Recognizing that a BS in Education is a good basic degreebecause of the breadth of knowledge required and practicalapplications beyond the classroom, he is impressed withthe collegiality of the Coastal Georgia faculty and the levelof interdisciplinary collaboration. “Teacher preparationis embraced as the responsibility of the entire faculty ofthe College, with good relationships between disciplines,critical for solid subject mastery in the sciences, math,social sciences, arts and humanities.”“The quality of our program is excellent because ofour excellent faculty. After our students take the GeorgiaAssessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE),they return to tell us how prepared they were for theexams. When they start teaching, they know what they aredoing. They have the ability to hit the ground running.”“I’m excited to be at Coastal Georgia, preparing topnotchnew teachers with the knowledge, skills, anddispositions to become teacher leaders in today’ schools,”he concludes. u14 College of Coastal Georgia – the Magazine