EED/SED 420 Student Teaching

Prof. Dennis Parsons Off./Hrs: 224 Swetman M & W 3-4:30PM (315) 312-2655

In that you will be working in unfamiliar communities for your student teaching I propose the following “Cultural Studies Project.” You may choose to work on this alone or with a partner, but essentially what I am asking you to do is learn more about the community and resources where you are teaching. I want you to find out all that you can about all the available cultural and institutional resources. Think of this project in four stageirst, find out all that you can about the local resources, such as where to find public libraries, community centers, churches, supportive agencies, including schedules, programs, etc.
Then, interview students in your class about where they go and what they do when they are not at school. Where do these children go with their families? What resources do they rely on? Where is the source of community? You might find the answer to these questions in some of the most surprising places (surprising to us, perhaps). You will need to send a letter home to parents/guardians and consult with your cooperating teacher/school administration before talking to children. A survey would be particularly useful as a springboard to one-on-one, small group or whole class discussion and we could all collaborate on generating these prompts and/or questions.
Visit these places/ attend meetings or services in order to learn more about them, and also compare these “unofficial” sites of community to the places you learned about in first stage of your inquiry. Finally, share your findings through writing, artifacts, reflections.

The following requirements also need to be satisfied in addition to the Cultural Studies Project:

·         Not missing any days and showing up on time and in a rested frame of mind and body (You are there to work and learn; enough said?)

·         Weekly planning meetings with cooperating teacher on curriculum, school policy and procedures, and evaluation of your teaching

·         Weekly teaching plans submitted to your cooperating teacher

·         Six observations of your teaching with follow-up conferences, one of which will be conducted by a peer, and five will be conducted by myself

·         daily teaching journal in which you write and reflect on your doubts, fears, anxieties, surprises, joys, great feats of strength (every teacher should keep a journal, especially their first year(s) of teaching.) We will discuss whether or not you would want to share at least parts of these journals electronically

Elementary students are also required to submit a literacy unit for a Literacy Fair to be held in between the 1^st and 2^nd quarter placement at SUNY /Oswego (You are not required to attend although several downstate student teachers have elected to do so in the past). Secondary student teachers complete a curriculum project.
First, find out all that you can about the local resources, such as where to find public libraries, community centers, churches, supportive agencies, including schedules, programs, etc.
Then, interview students in your class about where they go and what they do when they are not at school. Where do these children go with their families? What resources do they rely on? Where is the source of community? You might find the answer to these questions in some of the most surprising places (surprising to us, perhaps). You will need to send a letter home to parents/guardians and consult with your cooperating teacher/school administration before talking to children. A survey would be particularly useful as a springboard to one-on-one, small group or whole class discussion and we could all collaborate on generating these prompts and/or questions.
Visit these places/ attend meetings or services in order to learn more about them, and also compare these “unofficial” sites of community to the places you learned about in first stage of your inquiry.
Finally, share your findings through writing, artifacts, reflections.

The following requirements also need to be satisfied in addition to the Cultural Studies Project:

· Not missing any days and showing up on time and in a rested frame of mind and body (You are there to work and learn; enough said?)

· Weekly planning meetings with cooperating teacher on curriculum, school policy and procedures, and evaluation of your teaching

· Weekly teaching plans submitted to your cooperating teacher

· Six observations of your teaching with follow-up conferences, one of which will be conducted by a peer, and five will be conducted by myself

· daily teaching journal in which you write and reflect on your doubts, fears, anxieties, surprises, joys, great feats of strength (every teacher should keep a journal, especially their firsary student teachers complete a curriculum project.