Dr. Henry Johnson, the State Superintendent of Mississippi, spoke to the first-years on Saturday, April 23rd.This is the second year in a row that Dr. Johnson has addressed Teacher Corps as part of Dr. Andy Mullins' “Innovations of Education” class.

“I was impressed by the thoughtfulness of their questions and the general dialogue that we had,” said Dr. Johnson. “These teachers are well representative of the program and are an excellent addition to the Teacher Corps.”

Also in attendance were two former state superintendents, Dr. Tom Burnham (currently the Dean of the School of Education ) and Dr. Richard Boyd.

(From Left: Dr. Johnson, Dr. Burnham, Dr. Boyd, Dr. Mullins)

“Dr. Johnson really connects with our first-year teachers,” said Dr. Mullins. “He talks about teaching in general and then correlates that to his first year teaching in North Carolina and to our students first year teaching here in Mississippi."

“Every year Dr. Mullins brings in fantastic speakers,” said Ben Guest, Program Manager of the Teacher Corps. “It's impressive that the state superintendent of Mississippi takes time out of his busy schedule to come and ask our first-year teachers, ‘What are your concerns?'”

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is the most competitive alternate-route teaching program in the country. It is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 by Amy Gutman, a Harvard University graduate and Dr. Andy Mullins , current Special Assistant to the Chancellor of Ole Miss. Since 1989 more than 300 participants, reaching an estimated 60,000 students, have taught in critical-needs school districts as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

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