With the current state of the economy, it has only become more and more important to secure an education that allows one to be fully and practically trained for a career immediately following Final Exercises. To prepare its students, the University's Education School offers the opportunity to work in practical, real-life environments, allowing them to jump right into their futures.
"You are preparing not for a job, but for a career," said Joanne McNergney, assistant dean of Undergraduate and Master's Studies.
As one of the nation's consistently top-rated education programs, the Education School attracts many undergraduate and graduate students from both inside and outside of the University community. The Education School offers a five-year Teacher Education Program, which rewards students with both a Bachelor's of Arts or Science and a Master's in Teaching. These programs are typically applied for at the end of the program's second year and incorporated into the curriculum. It also offers undergraduate pre-professional degree programs to rising third-year students, such as degrees in kinesiology and communication disorders. For those students who complete these undergraduate programs, they will earn a Bachelor's of Science in Education. It is typical that after earning a bachelor's degree, graduates will later earn a Master's degree as well as Teacher Certification to become licensed practitioners in their respective fields.
To earn these degrees, students must complete a certain number of in-class practice. During the second year, only 10 hours of in-class practice is required by the student for the whole semester.
That number increases to a total 20-45 hours during the third and fourth years, and then 40 hours during the fifth year.
"Besides taking classes, you have the opportunity to apply what you are learning in field settings," McNergney noted.
Fifth-year Education student Meaghan Cabot, for example, will complete the BAMT program and is working toward a Bachelor's of Science in French Language and Secondary Education, with a minor in Dance. Currently, she teaches French 1 and 3 at Nelson County High School, a local school for which she hopes to become a full-time employee after graduation. She spends time and effort of a contracted teacher - 40 hours per week - and even more hours preparing lesson plans and other materials for her classroom.
Assisting in the classroom of a fifth-year Education student is a Coordinating Instructor. The CI acts as a guide, the actual teacher of the class who is observed by the student-teacher for a few weeks, and gradually takes a back seat to the student-teacher, allowing them to fully lead the class. Cabot said she appreciates the support and exemplary model of her CI.
"It's nice to see an effective and close teacher-student relationship at work. I always want to let my students know that I am always looking to build a relationship and that I want to make them better citizens of the world. I want to make sure they are well-rounded students," she said.
Meanwhile, Audra June Delauder, third-year College student and first-year Education Student, plans on teaching Earth science and specifically wants to work with gifted students by teaching International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement classes. Earlier in her academic career, Delauder decided she would have the most profound effect on her community by teaching what she loves.
"It's the best way I know how to share information with the next generation," she said. "It's the best way I know to have an impact on the world."
She is planning to instruct classes while seeking a doctoral degree in Gifted Education and ultimately wants to write AP curriculum for her area of specialty.\nDelauder described the Education School as a personal, albeit collaborative, learning environment.
"The classes are usually quite small, and you tend to have the same professor for multiple classes. They are very approachable, and I've grown very close with a couple of them," she added.
Similarly, Cabot has enjoyed the sense of community found at the rural city school at which she teaches.
"It is such a close-knit community. The other faculty and staff are also very close and very supportive," Cabot said. "I relate well to my students. There has to be a line drawn at some point - even though we relate, they know that I am their instructor."
For Cabot, balancing the student and teacher roles have proven less difficult than it would seem.
"We focus on our students and our classes so we don't have too many classes outside of the classroom. Still, we have one seminar respective to our content area in which we brainstorm ideas for our classrooms," she explained.
The practical experience allows student-teachers to become more comfortable in an educational setting, Cabot said, thus cementing the fact that for most, experiences taken from Education School have become postive learning experiences. The placing of Education students in practical situations in this way ultimately leads to a more skillful teacher workforce and a more efficient education system.
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