Teacher spearheads drive to save Teacher Academy memorabilia

Former Teacher Academy Instructor and Coordinator Joan Kani is spearheading a drive to collect a whole stack of memoirs from the soon to be vacated J105 classroom at Marianas High School, where hundreds of Teacher Academy students spent a good 10 years studying the teaching profession.

The MHS Teacher Academy will be closed in two weeks as Public School System and Northern Marianas College officials decided to relocate the program to NMC.

Mrs. Kani has turned one of the small bedrooms at her own home into a Teacher Academy alumni center where the visual history of the program can be witnessed since the day it started in 1989.

The small chamber contains all the banners, photos, albums, and written accounts of each class who had attended the Teacher Academy within the last 10 years.

“It carries documents of each class that went off-island, how they’re doing in their respective universities, and what their dorms are like,” said Mrs. Kani.

The whole Teacher Academy curriculum will also be displayed at this miniature alumni center.

Furthermore, the center is also being established to maintain contacts with Teacher Academy students who are still off-island finishing the program.

“Even though I am retired, I want to continue working with the students and check with them,” said Mrs. Kani.

All efforts to salvage some of that Teacher Academy “spirit” does not stop with the center, according to the retired teacher.

Current Teacher Academy instructor Ann Quick is reportedly starting a club at the high school where aspiring teachers can acquire guidance from.

“This is being done as an incentive for high school students who want to pursue teaching as a future profession,” said Mrs. Kani.

Before the program concludes officially next week, Mrs. Kani will at least have a chance to take over the class for the very last time.

Ms. Quick who will be off-island for a few days, has turned over the task to Mrs. Kani to substitute for seven days starting June 8.

“This would be really fun for me because I’d get to see the kids and I am going to say goodbye to them,” she said.

Having spent half her life teaching, Mrs. Kani never wanted to leave the profession since she retired in December of last year.

But health problems did not allow her to remain teaching for MHS any longer.

“I had physical problems with my knee and I would end up just crying out in classroom it hurts so bad I couldn’t stand it,” she said.

Despite the decision to end the program at MHS, Mrs. Kani prefers to look at the brighter side of things.
“Effective teachers are always flexible to changes. They have to be. With the alumni center, I will still be in touch with the kids and I would know what they are up to,” she added.

The decade-old Teacher Academy is a unique program which has nurtured students into becoming successful teaching professionals as early as the high school level.

The program will cease to be offered at the public high school starting next school year. (MM)