MNEA launches ‘I Can Do It’ program

Talk to any beginning teacher, and he or she will tell you that managing the classroom is the hardest part of teaching. That’s why Missouri NEA is bringing the “I Can Do It” classroom management training program to Missouri teachers.

“Many new teachers begin their school year with very little hands-on classroom-management experience,” says Carmen D. Hairston, a Riverview Gardens teacher and NEA member who is learning to be an “I Can Do It” trainer. “This course will help them understand and implement the di+fferent aspects of classroom management.”

Professional development is especially important to beginning teachers who are trying to fill the “practical” gaps between what they learned in school and what reality delivers to their classroom, according to Gage Dodson, Riverview Gardens NEA member and first-year teacher.

“I want to learn practical techniques I can take to the classroom to help with student behavior management,” Dodson says. “I’m comfortable with instruction, but I need the practical management techniques that I didn’t get in college.”

Educators in the California Teachers Association developed the "I Can Do It" program in 1996, and it has steadily gained popularity across the country.

For more information on the training program or to schedule a training in your area, contact the MNEA Teaching & Learning Director at (800) 392–0236.

Register for an "I Can Do It" session.