First Year Seminars

The EGEN Seminars, EGEN 3100 in the fall semester and EGEN 3110W in the spring semester, are designed to help first year students make connections between what they are learning in their courses and what they are learning in their clinic setting. Seminar leaders design a series of activities that help students deepen their understandings about applications of learning theory, learning technology, differentiation of instruction, and special education in real classrooms. Students enroll in seminar sections that correspond with the PDC in which they complete their clinic assignment and participate in the seminar with students who are also placed in the same PDC. For example, all students placed in Glastonbury Public Schools participate in the same section of EGEN 3100, allowing for reflection on and analysis efforts across the district at all grade levels.

While specific clinic assignments for these students will vary depending upon their seminar leader, some assignments that students have been expected to complete at this phase of the program include:

• Collect baseline data on a student's classroom behavior;
• Adapt a generic lesson plan for individual learners;
• Review the school's policy statement on special education procedures and guidelines for parents;
• Create a school profile;
• Observe a Planning and Placement Team meeting;
• Teach a small group using an adapted lesson plan;
• Shadow a student or administrator for a day to get a feel for what a day in that person's life at school entails.