Is a PSC certificate required in Georgia?

Yes. Any professional serving in the public schools must hold a valid certificate appropriate to the field of employment. All certificate fields are classified as Teaching, Service or Leadership.

Routes to Certification

Traditional Routes

Obtaining a Georgia certificate by completing a state-approved educator preparation program, usually at a college or university. This process could include earning a college degree along with the state certificate, or you might complete the requirements just for a certificate after you have already finished your degree. In addition, educators who move to Georgia with an out-of-state certificate must meet Georgia's certification requirements through reciprocity procedures. For the most part, the traditional initial programs are completed prior to employment in a public school and lead directly to Georgia's Clear Renewable Certificate.

Alternative Routes

Obtaining a Georgia certificate while you work as an educator. Designed for "career switchers" who already hold degrees and have various life experiences, as well as former educators with expired or invalid certificates who wish to return to the classroom. These routes are not limited to, but are of particular importance when completed in high need, shortage fields such as math, science, foreign language and special education. Initial eligibility requirements lead to a Non-Renewable Certificate and remaining requirements are completed while the individual is serving as an educator in a Georgia public school. Upon completion of this route, the Clear Renewable Certificate is issued.

When I read up on the 'No child left behind' it looked like the loosened up on who could be a teacher.

The big question in everyone minds, remains..where you certified when you were hired...and were there more qualified people trying for the same slot?

He still doesn't have clear and renewable certification by the GAPSC.

How do you know?

You say he doesn't and Panterpride says he does. How do either of you know? (Assuming Panterpride isn't the son)

As a parent you have a right to know your teacher's level of certification. It is public knowledge.

then post the link to the info or get off his back.

You have to request the info in writing from the school principal. Any more questions??

You're from Brooks and whether or not he was his certification is of no consequence to you. Yet, you still called up starrs mill to check him out. I think you're full of shit. You don't like Janet Smola so you're taking it out on her kid. Have you talked to any of his students or their parents? What do they think?

I am sorry that you assumed that I think he is a bad teacher. Never said anything of the kind. The question is, "Was fully certified qualified teachers past over in the hiring process?" That is a fair question.

question that parents need answered.

I don't agree people are on his back. Both he and Mom knew people would question this with her being on the BOE.

The question needs to be answered, did he have a certificate when he applied/hired? or did Momie pull strings?

If he had it, I would think he would be forthcoming and clear up the question of any improprieties.

In fact most people coming in would make that their first priority.

the idea is that mom doesn't have to pull any strings. anyone with a degree can apply to teach at a school without certification. this is not fayette county, this is georgia. when you are hired on, you are given a provisional certification which states that you must earn your renewable certification within a given time frame. this is rather normal and i can't believe people don't know about this. you are also discounting the possibility that perhaps mr. smola had proven himself more academically than "qualified" teachers had. if someone with a teacher certification and a C average applies and someone who made A's applied, but w/o a teaching certificate, who should you hire? it's very possible that his mom had nothing to do with it and that he might just have earned the job himself. don't get me wrong, i know that janet smola is the dark overlord of tyrone, ga (have you seen that deathstar she's building?), but you should at least consider the idea that perhaps her son is intelligent and deserved the job. perhaps also, "improprieties" haven't been cleared up because no amount of reason would appeal to half of the people on this board. some people just do not like the smolas and even if Jesus himself explained things to everyone they would still not be satisfied without a lynching. it's like that fred garvin guy on here who's still trying to get mccain elected or something. there's just no sense in reasoning with such a person! he's made up his mind and that's all there is to it.

the law says you need a CERTIFICATE, what part of that don't you understand? You would have us believe that someone with a certificate but a lower average isn't qualified? We don't know who applied. You aren't suppose to keep turning the rules around to make them fit. If someone has a teaching certificate and someone else doesn't, when applying, the rules shouldn't be stretched, he either had it, or he didn't.

Judging from the smearing of Todd and Key, I would say there is a possibility he DIDN'T, and that other things were weighed to make him come out ahead.

Since you have such intimate knowledge, want to talk about kids being custodians and clerks who are related to BOE without a vote by the BOE?

You are the one who doesn't understand certificates.

Teachers are hired all the time with provisional certificates. They have a set period of time to earn the credentials so that the certificate is no longer provisional. There are teachers all over the school system hired just this way. Some of them are certified in another state. Some of them came to education through some other career. Some have degrees in their specialty fields, but not in education. The practice is VERY, VERY COMMON! You are throwing around accusations about something you IMAGINE MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED. You don't know who else applied, you don't know what qualifications they might have had, you really don't know anything.

So you think there is a chance that Mr. Smola was awarded a position that might have gone to some other imaginary applicant, but you have determined that all of that MUST have happened because you hate the Smolas.

You are like a rabid dog if somebody says Smola. Go to the vet and get caught up on your shots.

I agree with you, it is a small department.

Looking at the teachers salaries, I would say Todds relatives brought credentials to the table.

Conversely, 28,000. is an extremely ..low...salary for someone with all that Smola is suppose to bring, not the least of which is..starting...with...a certificate to teach at the time of employment.

If there is a link, it could be cleared up..not if he is, but when was he certified and were there more qualified people up for it?

We need to get laws into place to stop the nepotism. Yes, teachers kids become teachers.

If he was such cracker jack, why didnt he get snapped up by someone else. They knew going in how stinky this looks and they did it anyway, so I don't think son and mom are being picked on. Especially when we are going to loose 175 other teachers.

I think it is us that are being picked on by picking up the tab for salaries of relatives.

Could you have picked a more obvious handle than "Pantherpride?"

but I'm not Mr. Smola. I've been looking at your posts. I think you are related to Bob Todd. I've also been listening to podcasts. Your posts all sound just like him. Is he feeding you lies to post?

So, how do you Mr. Smola is certified? There have been a lot of posts recently draging his name through the mud and I don't think its fair. If he is indeed certified and qualified. Think what you will about his mom but it is not uncommon for the child of an educator to grow up and become an educator. Frankly, I don't think anyone who has posted so far know the truth for sure. Or at least, they have failed to give an adequate source for there informatioin.

I am not related to Dr. Todd. I am a concerned citizen that cares about the children just like Dr. Todd. I have lived in this community for a long time and my children attended these schools. SMHS's english dept......hum... small dept. Maybe you should watch what you say....

I guess since you are not still married to his son, you aren't a relative any more...still the mother of his grandchild who attends Brooks, though. Hmmmm.....

Sorry on that one. Didn't have the pleasure. Like I said, I have lived here a LONG time.....

you are a real little nasty aren't you?

firstly, your response is full of comma splices and empty spaces in which commas should be. commas are used to separate clauses and not to indicate a pause in speech. you should have also said "what do i know?" that question mark is important to let people know you're asking a question. so to answer your final question, it turns out that you don't know as much as you'd like to think.

secondly, this is an internet site for a local newspaper and not a 25 page research paper about the faerie queene. have you ever read it? no? ok, neither have most education majors with an emphasis in language arts. and yes, you are right! all high school teachers do have to pass an evaluation to prove that they can teach their subject. it's called the gace and mr. smola would not have been able to teach at all if he had not passed it. i know people who have passed the gace to teach things that they didn't even study in college. that's why you have sports medicine majors coaching football and teaching history.

taking 9 classes in a concentration area, most of which are not at the senior level, does not qualify as "mastery" of a subject. i would say that qualifies as familiarity with a subject. i'm not saying that i've mastered it either, but i am saying i know more about english literature than someone who was an education major. people who are "masters" of their field are not teaching in fayette county. those people have phd's and teach in prestigious universities and even that is a stretch. an astrophysicist doesn't "master" the whole of science. they usually just TRY to master astrophysics...and even that, i'm afraid, is not possible for any one person. so we can both agree that the term "mastered" was used a little loosely on your part. as an english major, i would call it hyperbolic! but what do i know? i can't clearly convey what i'm trying to say to you because i haven't capitalized certain letters which i know ought to be capitalized in more formal situations.

We could argue the proper placement of commas until the cows come home Ms. Paws; however, considering that I am not the one who wants to be an English teacher in the Fayette school system nor am I one who professes to "Love English" I think your amateur critique of my post is irrelevant.

What I can tell you is the good people of Fayette, Coweta, and surrounding counties really don't want an English teacher attempting to teach our children who lacks the capacity to use basic punctuation when addressing the community.

comma placement is not up for debate. we could argue about that, but you would be wrong. there are books with this information in it. also, please correct my punctuation if it's so flawed. you just generally disagree with what i said and are using the fact that i'm not writing this like a doctoral thesis to criticize me. you have also adopted the idea that i am going to be somehow insulted if you call me "ms." but it really doesn't. it just makes me wonder if i'm still in middle school (especially since you didn't have answers for my last post). if someone beats you in an argument, you don't just say "well, you're gay!" so let's see...comma placement, my punctuation, and my gender are not really up for debate.

the reason i want to teach english is because i like it. i wouldn't have studied it if i didn't have one teacher who really cared about the subject. proof-reading has nothing to do with what we're talking about. if it doesn't look like japanese and you understand what i'm saying, then what's the problem? i obviously wouldn't teach kids to never capitalize anything or to use poor grammar.

i agree that there's a lot more to teaching than just english. there's math, science, history, etc. if you're talking about crowd control/babysitting, then i am missing your point. kids will learn if they want to and they won't if they don't want to. nothing you can say or do will influence that. what i'm saying is that if a kid fails a class then it is most likely that kid's fault and not the teacher's.

In one of your blogs you state that a child will learn if he wants to regardless of the teacher. Yet, in another blog you say it is because of a teacher that you decided to become a teacher. Evidently that teacher had some influence on your learning and wanting to seek a certain profession. I am somewhat puzzled that you would chose teaching as your profession if you really feel as you implied in your one blog that teachers make no difference. Why would you choose a career that you feel you make no difference whatsoever?

If it were true that teachers do not matter then we could just put computers in every classroom and let the computer teach with no interaction between teacher and student.

I personally feel every teacher I had at every stage of my life had and impact and influence on me. Most of them were positive and some were negative. I learned from both.

"if it doesn't look like japanese and you understand what i'm saying, then what's the problem?"

Are you 12 years old?

That is the crappiest attitude toward the english language and proper communication I have seen. You don't feel compelled to use proper spelling, punctuation or sentence structure, yet you feel you are qualified to be a teacher?? No one serious about their calling, regardless of their career, would take what they do for a living and treat it so poorly.

I hope you are yanking everyone's chain. If not, for the sake of the children, stay away from teaching.

ZoeS

"Never love anything that can't love you back."

To begin with, I'm not 12 years old. I do know how to punctuate and how to capitalize. I just chose not to because of the setting. You want to know something horrible? When I write, I write in all caps. So maybe there's the trade-off (I use all my caps when I write letters by hand). The point is that what I'm doing now shows that I can do this, but choose not to. I don't think that this means that I "disrespect" my calling, but I don't think language is the holy of holies. I think language is just something to be used and discarded when it loses its usefulness. That's not meant to sound horrible; it's meant to sound realistic. If we did not discard language when we outgrew it, we'd be speaking Middle English still...but we don't and most people think it sounds silly and are glad that we moved past that. Language is meant to be used effectively and while you can nit pick about whether or not I use correct punctuation on the Fayette Citizen blog or in my private journal, the point is that I can. The laws of English do not have to be obeyed under all circumstances (I learned that in college and didn't just make it up. There are books on this). Plenty of the "greatest novels of all time" are full of "errors" regarding grammar, punctuation, and composition. I say "errors" because that's what they would be perceived as if you felt strongly about obeying the rules, but since they meant to break them, they are heroes, etc...but no one says that James Joyce doesn't care about language. I'm certainly not saying that I'm James Joyce, but I am saying that intent matters. I know you'll disagree with me still and that's fine, but you need to understand that I know what I'm talking about and that my lack of capitalization in a blog post and my feelings about the sanctity of language have nothing to do with my ability to teach. I had multiple professors send me e-mails that were not correctly capitalized and they had doctorates. It's just that it really doesn't matter whether or not everything is perfect for a blog post. It's just not that important.

i agree that there's a lot more to teaching than just english. there's math, science, history, etc. if you're talking about crowd control/babysitting, then i am missing your point. kids will learn if they want to and they won't if they don't want to. nothing you can say or do will influence that. what i'm saying is that if a kid fails a class then it is most likely that kid's fault and not the teacher's.

If you don't understand the importance of being able to motivate/control a group of students - you're missing the point - and have no business in a classroom! A good teacher works hard to develop lesson plans that include motivating the student to become interested in the subject and able to relate it to his/her goals. If you think that students are thrilled to learn grammar, context, etc. just because you 'teach' it - you're in the wrong business. Those teachers who teach children successfully work very hard to prepare lessons that motivate and involve the learner. Please - find another job!! It is a shame that your paragraph is an example of a certified teacher in the state of Georgia – or the United States! Please inform me that faux_paws is not certified!

You make a valid point. To clarify though, I still think that knowledge of the subject being taught is more important than theoretical approaches to delivering said knowledge. I think the reason that there are often bored students in the classroom is because there are bored teachers in the classroom. If a teacher doesn't find what they're teaching interesting, then no amount of education theory is going to make the students find it interesting. I have a bit of a bias because in school I would end up in classes where education majors w/an emphasis on language arts would be in class with me. The people who were going to be teaching this were the people who were the most disruptive and cared the least about whatever we were talking about. Not to say that all education majors are like this and perhaps I've had some particularly bad experiences with them.

So "Davids mom," I am here to inform you that my post was not an example of a certified teacher. I think it's rather clear that you didn't really read my post. If you had, you would find nowhere that states I am certified to be a teacher, quite the opposite. While I do agree with you that a teacher should be trying to motivate the students, I still hold to my original statement: a student won't learn if they don't want to, no matter what you do. I knew people who failed classes taught by excellent teachers who really engaged the class and tried to motivate people. I think it's really easy to blame the teacher if your child is doing poorly, but sometimes it could just be that your sweet angel is actually a demon in the classroom who refuses to do any work. And the response is always the same: "not my child!" Don't worry, I would never teach in PTC.

Whew! I think you are a credit to an honorable profession - and I agree that parents have the responsibility to send a child to school 'ready to learn'. We all have a responsibility in the process; parent, teacher, and student. (Let's not forget the importance of a supportive community!) I'm all for upgrading the education of those who want to teach. Good luck in your endeavors.

If my plumber doesn't know what side the hot water goes on, he's out the door, if my mechanic can't open the hood of my car, I'm out the door, if the teacher can't spell or capitalize or punctuate she/he doesn't get in the door. I think whoever this is is lying, and not even close to being a teacher.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

You're insinuating that I don't know how to properly capitalize. Well, here you go. Does this help you out? Now that you know that I can do it and that I'm not the world's dumbest plumber, is your mind changed? Probably not. I find it amazing that all anyone cares about is that I didn't take the time to capitalize letters in my post; as if to say that it would have been taken seriously if only I had.

Then I repeat:

If you don't understand the importance of being able to motivate/control a group of students - you're missing the point - and have no business in a classroom!

and they are over 50 years old and very close to the Smola's!

nope, i'm a young person.

idk lol OMG! myb shes my bff! rofl
l8r

jim

Are you still mad because I schooled you the other day? I know it's hard for you, but you were really set on insulting me when I had not made any personal attacks against you in my post. This is because you are obviously a very mature adult and I'm a child who just doesn't understand that sometimes you need to put your foot in your mouth. I'm sure there's a support group you can go to.