Next week, May 3-7, is Teacher Appreciation Week. Based on a recent report by the Virginia Department of Education, however, it will be harder to appreciate a position that is rapidly declining within the Commonwealth.

The VDOE data shows that there are more than 1,000 available openings, and it has only increased since the pandemic of 2020. Add in contributing factors such as strict entry requirements, lack of provisional resources, and increased workloads, and it’s no surprise that these numbers are continuing to rise. Now, the VDOE is part of a campaign across the country to recruit new teachers into the field.

WSLS-10 in Roanoke spoke with Charles Pyle, a spokesperson for VDOE. “What we hope is that it will interest folks who perhaps hadn’t considered teaching as a potential career path. Whether they’re in college or preparing to enter college or whether they’re already in a career and are thinking about possibly changing careers,” said Pyle.

Among the VDOE report, the top 10 areas of shortage within the state’s 132 school divisions for this year are special education, elementary education, middle education, secondary mathematics (including Algebra I), career and technical education, secondary science, foreign language, secondary English, library media, and secondary history and social science.

The campaign is known as “The Future Depends on Teachers,” will air before, during and after national Teacher Appreciation Week, May 3-7. The spots celebrate the role of teachers in shaping the future by preparing students for success and invite viewers to consider teaching as a career. It was produced by TEACH, a non-profit created by the U.S. Department of Education and Microsoft.

For those interested in becoming a teacher, visit. https://www.teach.org/virginia.