Student Teaching

Student Teaching


Student teaching with Laura Anthony

The Elementary Inclusive Program provides students with one of the nation's most clinically rich teacher education programs. Our student teaching experience spans two semesters and is designed to prepare you for a smooth transition to a full-time teaching career.

As a student teacher, you will join a full-time New York City teacher in their elementary school classroom. You will support students, collaborate on lesson planning, lead learning experiences, analyze and act upon assessment data, and become an integral part of the school community. The student teaching experience takes place three and a half days a week across two full semesters.

By the end of your second student teaching semester, you will have taught across all subject areas, received coaching from your cooperating teacher and a TC-based field supervisor, and taken the lead for an entire week of instruction.

Student Teaching Website

We place students in a diversity of New York City public schools, most of which are long-standing partners of our program. We ensure that nearly every classroom we work with serves students with diagnosed disabilities. It is also important to us that our graduate students gain experience working with children who represent different racial groups, ethnicities, languages, socio-economic strata, religions, nationalities and family structures.

In addition, we are committed to giving our students two very different student teaching placements during their time with us; this allows student teachers to gain a breadth of experience as well as insight into their own preferences prior to embarking on their teaching careers. For example, we aim to provide students with an “upper grades” placement and a “lower grades” placement, two different structures for serving students with disabilities, and two very different schooling contexts.

In addition to the receiving mentorship from their school-based cooperating teacher, each student teacher is assigned a Teachers College field supervisor each semester. Supervisors are all experienced former classroom teachers and teacher educators. Supervisors support student teachers with lesson planning, provide feedback on instruction, and help student teachers think through the rich and varied problems of practice that surface during one’s student teaching year.

The supervisory staff meets five to six times per semester to discuss expectations of student teachers, the progress of each student teacher, and problems as they occur. This collaborative model facilitates a rich dialogue among students, supervisors, faculty, and cooperating schools, and promotes a meaningful and cohesive educational experience.

Prior to your student teaching year, you are required to take Multicultural Social Studies (C&T 4143) and Disability, Exclusion, and Schooling (C&T 4000). These courses are offered during the summer, fall, and spring semesters. Note that the two-semester student teaching sequence always begins in the fall.

 

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