Hello teacher candidate. 

Welcome to the official site of Pacific Union College’s Education Department’s student teaching handbook. This page serves as a repository for all forms and documents mandated by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to ensure you meet the requirements for the CA state credential as well as the SDA teacher license. While most documents will be printed and distributed during your journey with us, you can always bookmark this page to access additional copies whenever needed.

PUC Education Department

Mission Statement

 The mission of the Education Department is to develop professional and compassionate teachers who have the skills and teaching strategies necessary to create a rigorous and stimulating classroom climate where learning takes place for all students.

                                                                                                                           – March 3, 2013  

Vision Statement

Pacific Union College is dedicated to preparing students for “service to humanity.” As stated in the General Catalog, “The mission of the college is therefore partly realized when its students leave the campus well prepared for advanced study and for selfless service to humanity in productive careers marked by uncompromising personal integrity.” (General Catalog, p. 12) No occupation is more important than teaching children and young people the knowledge and life skills needed to be successful and contributing members of society. No occupation calls on its members to embody selfless service” more than those who teach in the Pre-K – Gr. 12 education system.

Recognizing the need for caring and competent teachers in California schools, Pacific Union College and our Education Department are committed to teaching and coaching best-practice beliefs and strategies with our pre-service candidates. We desire candidates to see the unique potential in every student and then to plan and implement instruction, aligned with CA subject-matter standards and frameworks, that will grow that potential into tangible life skills. We desire our candidates to be skilled in forming positive, supportive relationships with students, but more than that, to identify and support students experiencing difficulty or trauma. Further, we desire candidates to be able classroom managers, relying first on engaging and relevant instruction, but also relying on non-coercive management skills where students are taught to become self-regulated and self-managers. Finally, our vision includes not only helping them achieve their teaching credential, but also helping them connect to potential employers when their credential is completed.

Our vision to inspire and train these kinds of knowledgeable and skilled pre-service teachers is rooted deeply in our Seventh-day Adventist worldview, which calls on us to be a part of God’s loving plan to restore humankind with the love, freedom, power and joy with which He originally endowed us. This worldview leads us to see the wholeness in every child – cognitively, emotionally, physically, and spiritually – and to see the wholeness in every human being’s potential life experience – now and for eternity.