EDUC 400 Student Teaching
We honor your funds of knowledge that you bring to our course.
As your instructor, I am a guide and facilitator learning along side you.
Teaching candidates in Semester 3 are in their capstone field experience, teaching in their respective classrooms with their Cooperating teachers (Mentors). This is their authentic teaching experience learning alongside their mentor teachers and their students. Weekly seminars support their professional learning as teacher candidates talk and reflect about their learning experiences. I take my leads from these preservice teachers as they assume their professional identities as teachers supporting each other as colleagues. Preservice teachers are activating their prior knowledge and funds of knowledge to their current classroom teaching and learning. I serve as their facilitator and guide since their mentor teachers interact with them throughout the school day.
Your learning is for you, guided by your interests, motivation, curiosity and passions.
Preservice teachers become reflective practitioners as they are receptive to feedback from their mentor teacher their university supervisor. Their learning curve is high as learn the stories of their students, their school, their families and their community. I have modeled for them throughout their student teaching semesters (and courses I taught them) that stories are important because at the end of the day, that is all that remains, is their story of the day before. This is why I try to capture some of our time together in photos and videos.
“When a day passes it is no longer there.
What remains of it? Nothing more than a story.
If stories weren’t told or books weren’t written, man would live
Like beasts-only for a day.
Today, we live, but tomorrow today will be a story.
The whole world, all human life, is one long story.”
(I.B. Singer in Cooper and Collins in Look What Happened to Frog, 1991, p. 8).
Constructivists learn from stories, so stories are important to all learning and teaching.
Teaching candidates in Student Teaching semester 1 and 2 have opportunities to contribute to Family Literacy & Math Nights at several local schools. This provides students with authentic opportunities to experience diversity working directly with families, students, teachers and administrators.
Semester 1 and 2 student teachers also had opportunities to work at McKinley Elementary School on a family oral history storytelling project supported by Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation from 2016-2018.
Young Writers & Storytellers: Oral family storytelling project boosts kids' storytelling skills (Majestic Magazine, Summer 2017, pp. 14-15, 52)
McKinley Elementary Oral History Project
Kirtland Elementary School Family Math Night (Spring 2017)
School Resource Officer DeLese (Spring 2018)
Student Teachers (Spring/Fall 2018)
Student Teachers & Mentors (Spring 2018)
Teaching with stories as the content & context for learning (Vitali, 2016) is based on our oral family history project with our teacher candidates