Second Year Coursework (Spring)
During the first two weeks of the student teaching semester, students take courses at the university related to their specialization area. They enroll in the EGEN 4110 seminar for the entire semester. Students are strongly discouraged from taking any other courses during the student teaching semester so that they can devote their energies and attention to the challenges of daily student teaching.
| All Students take: |
| EGEN 4110 |
Seminar/Clinic: Analysis of Teaching (Full semester course) |
| Plus the following: |
| Elementary Education Majors |
| EDCI 4130 |
Teaching the Language Arts in the Elementary School (Two week course) |
| EDCI 4150 |
Directed Student Teaching |
Secondary Education Majors
Music Education/Agricultural Education Majors |
| EDCI 4010 |
Teaching Reading and Writing in the Content Area (Two week course) |
| EDCI 4250 |
Directed Student Teaching |
| Special Education |
| EPSY 4110 |
Advanced Foundation of Disability (Two week course) |
| EPSY 4115 |
Directed Student Teaching |
Student Teaching Seminar
The EGEN 4110: Analysis of Teaching seminars are scheduled by the seminar leaders and take place in schools within Professional Development Centers to which students are assigned. Students who are student teaching in the same PDC enroll in the same section of EGEN 4110 which encourages reflection on and analysis of curricular and instructional methods and challenges within a specific school district.
Seminars address issues related to the act of teaching, the teaching profession, and the role of professional educators within the community. Specific agendas vary depending upon the needs and interests of the students, cooperating teachers, and seminar leaders. Cooperating teachers and administrators are invited and encouraged to attend the student teaching seminars to participate in collaborative reflection with student teachers.
The EGEN 4110 seminar provides a framework for two very important activities for IB/M students: building the teaching portfolio and preparing a teaching-focused portfolio segment in TaskStream, focused on self-assessment and based on Connecticut’s BEST (Beginning Educator Support and Training) Portfolio.
Building the teaching portfolio. All students in the IB/M program are expected to build a professional portfolio, documenting their work and progress in the IB/M program. The expectations about specific items to be included in the portfolio are dictated by the students’ advisors. The student teaching experience provides an exceptional platform for gathering and creating many resources – unit plans, instructional differentiations, instructional materials, assessment tools, examples of student work – to add to the portfolio. Student teachers should take advantage of all avenues open to them during their student teaching assignment to gather input, ideas, and materials from teachers.
Preparing the TaskStream Portfolio. All IB/M students have a TaskStream account as part of the NSoE Technology Initiative. During the student teaching semester, students participate in a “mini-BEST” experience, building an electronic portfolio consisting of a lesson plan including assessment strategies, student profiles, student work samples, examples of feedback to students, videotape of a lesson being taught by the student teacher, analysis of student work, and reflective analysis of the entire portfolio segment. Specific requirements for the TaskStream portfolio are discussed in the 4110 seminar. The TaskStream portfolio assignment is modeled after the Connecticut BEST Portfolio and provides teacher candidates with early guided experiences for assembling their BEST portfolio.
