A new program offered by The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning is already having an impact on brand new teachers and their students.

Scores of North Carolina teachers have embarked on a professional learning opportunity through QTL's New and Emerging Teacher Institute. With help from the North Carolina General Assembly, districts including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Johnston County and Brunswick County are sending teachers through a powerful six-day experience.

Johnston County teachers were among the first to participate in NETI earlier this year.

NETI prepares teachers to face the challenges that all too often end teaching careers prematurely - from classroom management issues to paperwork, bureaucracy, difficult students and parents. It shows them strategies for reaching students and making sure they understand what they're supposed to be learning.

Johnston County teachers were among the first to pilot the program, and administrators were so pleased that they scheduled another session this summer.

"I am more than happy to suggest that other districts use QTL's model for New and Emerging Teachers," says Professional Growth Facilitator Terri Sessoms. "Due to the student success in behavior and academics as a result of this professional development, we are scheduling this as part of our ten day orientation for lateral entry teachers in August so they are better prepared to meet the needs of their students from Day 1."

Teachers who've begun the process say it's been helpful in several ways - from giving them time to talk to other new teachers about classroom issues to learning the practical application of educational theories.

"If it wasn't for this program I would still be making the same mistakes without knowing that I was making them," says Brunswick County teacher Kelly Slade. "I would also still be wondering why things were the way they were."

Slade says participating in NETI allowed her to "take a step back" from teaching and examine what she needed to approach differently. Open discussions gave her a chance "to realize that there are other new teachers who are facing the same things that I am" and to pick up on great ideas and strategies to use in her own classroom.

"I think all teachers, new and old, need to take time to do this," she adds.

Slade's colleague Richard Brown says NETI helped him grow as a teacher, gave him new ideas for the classroom, and allowed him to share experiences with his peers. "The QTL team did an amazing job of demonstrating ideas as well as allowing us to work with them at the same time."

"(NETI) is a refuge and a comfort zone for the 'newbie' teacher," says Brunswick teacher Kim Brown. "It supports an environment to ask the questions so that you can take what you have learned back to your classroom, and because there are follow-up sessions, you can bring experiences and questions to the QTL session."

QTL CEO Dave Boliek says new teachers face numerous challenges, and the goal of the program is to give them the support they need to begin experiencing the joy of teaching effectively.

"Helping teachers survive their first years sufficiently to become veteran teachers who contribute over many years is an awesome task," he says. "NETI provides support for districts in this endeavour."

Sessoms says the program has been practical professional development for Johnston County's new teachers.

"Our teachers have said that this is something they wish they had been a part of before school started.  The classroom management and instructional strategies have been provided in such a way that each teacher is going back to their own classrooms and implementing the next day.