PROSPECT — Two Moraine Elementary teachers are offering student teachers more support.

Fourth-grade teacher Jamie Miller and first-grade teacher Tara Coyne gave a presentation about the program they developed at Monday's school board meeting at Moraine Elementary School.

“We're passionate about teachers, and we want to inspire and help upcoming teachers,” Miller said.

The two teachers have implemented a weekly after-school meeting for student teachers to ask them questions or collaborate with one another.

Each meeting also comes with a topic of discussion for the day, aside from offering a place to discuss weekly occurrences. The themes include classroom-specific topics like lesson planning, managing behavior and topic transitions, but they also cover areas such as special services, building classroom communities and applying for jobs.

Coyne said it is a place where student teachers could talk about their positive and negative experiences throughout the week.

“We thought this was a great time to get all these new teachers together,” Coyne said.

Miller said there are two student teachers from Moraine Elementary participating in the meetings, but it was the ideal number to test out their program.

“The spring is really when we have more student teachers,” Miller said.

Also attending Monday's meeting was Kristie Shulsky, Moraine Elementary School principal, who testified to Miller and Coynes being inspirational teachers.

“They're very young in their career, but they take on every opportunity they can to become better teachers and help others become better teachers,” Shulsky said. “They love their field, so they're just trying to give back.”

Shulsky said Miller and Coyne are examples of her faculty's collective work ethic.

“It's really a positive reflection of Moraine Elementary. They're part of a larger team here, and my teachers really collaborate and work together. That's just an example of what they do daily.”

Slippery Rock Area School District Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci said the number of people entering the teaching field is declining statewide, and he hopes programs like this will encourage growth in the profession.

“I think it's fantastic when we have veteran teachers who are willing to give back on their own time after school to nurture and encourage budding and prospective teachers,” Angelucci said. “It speaks a lot to the district.”