Meet your new substitute teacher — Miss Maryland.

If only.

But Marina Harrison — the only woman to have ever represented Maryland in both the Miss America and Miss USA competitions, school officials said — did visit Meade Middle School to teach a language arts class.

She was among several local leaders who taught classes at Anne Arundel schools Wednesday morning as part of a “teach-in” to publicize Maryland’s need for more teachers and an Anne Arundel Community College program that helps career changers become teachers.

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“My first job was here as a substitute,” said Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates Michael Busch, D-District 30, who came to Northeast High in Pasadena to teach U.S. history. “Back then there was a glut of teachers; now it’s the exact opposite.”

Busch quizzed the class on government, civil rights and 1960s rock and roll.

Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Clayton Greene, a 1969 graduate of Northease, lectured on the nuances of criminal justice, talking about the O.J. Simpson trials and other notable legal cases.

“It’s great to come back and not have any homework tonight when I get home,” he said laughing.

Other subs for the day included Comcast Vice President Bruce Abbott, breast surgeon Cynthia Drogula, Anne Arundel Community College President Martha A. Smith and Anne Arundel schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell.

Maryland needs about 7,000 new teachers every year but graduates only about 2,000, according to Bob Mosier, spokesman for Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

“We know there are people out there who are unsatisfied in their work who may be interested in a career in education,” said Colleen Eisenbeiser, the director of teacher technology training at Anne Arundel Community College.

The college’s Resident Teacher Corp program helps college graduates interested in becoming educators secure positions while working toward their teaching certification. “It’s a back door to teaching,” she said.

For more information on the program, call 410-777-1986.

mplum@baltimoreexaminer.com