It’s Friday and I am exhausted from a week away doing an external review of another university’s teacher preparation program. I enjoy this work because it lets me see how other institutions are preparing teachers. I have seen different ideas that I have instituted in the School of Education that I work and some other ideas that I love but would know would not work or translate well (due to context).
One of the amazing ideas I saw in action this past week is an apprenticeship program. This apprenticeship program is set up so that in a student’s final year of internship one mentor teacher is shared between two student interns. The mentor teacher, a paid teacher for the district, floats between two classrooms coaching the two student interns who have been hired as teachers of record by the district for the year splitting a teacher’s salary for the year. The mentor teacher is selected because the principal has identified this individual as the teacher in the school that he would like all new teachers to emulate. I think this practice is so- highly innovative! I know where I work we have students in their final year of our program take on a paraprofessional position in a school—but with the teacher shortages, especially in special education, I wonder if this apprenticeship model would be more powerful and would work better. Another idea I really loved that this particular institution is doing is teaching their “hub” of classes for each particular cohort in one school—using one day to teach and the next day to apply what was taught under supervision in actual classrooms (with a mentor teacher there to support them and the university instructor circulating to watch students, as well.) Thinking of how this would translate where I work junior year spring semester would have a hub of classes (Literacy Development II, Principles of Universal Design for Learning, Lesson Planning, Junior Seminar) all taught in one school on one day and practice opportunities on another day in the same school. This is something that could be done but would take a lot of time to roll out to be done properly and to ensure that what students are learning in class they are seeing and able to put in action on that second day; it would require a really strong partnership between the university and the school with clearly set out expectations, planning, and a scope and sequence to ensure this experiences potential is maximized. The third idea that I am really excited to dig into the research and learn more about is the DAP interview. This DAP interview is one of the multiple measures used for candidates’ entry into their teacher preparation program. Since this is really the first time that I have heard about this interview I really can not say much about it, other than I want to learn more about it and its predictive value for a teacher candidate’s effectiveness not only in a teacher preparation program but also within the classroom. Being a reviewer, and going through the review process, I find keeps me accountable to my own practice. It also lets me see teacher preparation from a different lens. I love that this work ensures that I am always learning and thinking of how to best strengthen the work being done at my own university.
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February 2023
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