Background: Teacher Preparation.The student teaching model of the 1950s, dropping candidates for 40 day placements in districts, with volunteer teachers willing to accept them, can not adequately prepare candidates for a job of this importance. We needed, and developed a new model.
|
What then is a teacher? As teachers we use the many sources of professional knowledge, skill, and experience at our disposal to engage the minds and hearts of children and youth by teaching and inspiring them.... Teaching, in its full glory is an artful display of skill and grace, a deeply developed craft for an extremely complex act. Although in teaching it is further exacerbated by having to accommodate, maybe 15, 20, 25, or thirty completely different students. There is little uniform about a classroom of students. They are all unique, and to compound the task, the personal dynamics change every day and the entire group changes every year. The thrill, the challenge, the need for balance, the attention to detail, the imperative of safety; all present.
|
The important mismatch~perception and reality.Teaching is complex yet the public perception does not match the demands of the profession. It is romanticized in childhood, playing school with favorite stuffed animals or younger siblings. Then observed, as students, sitting in classrooms and watching teachers teach for years. And eventually even assuming the role of instructor to help someone else learn something new like ride a bike, drive a car, or bake a pie. So how do these experiences, and ones portrayed through media, movies, and television, shape public perception in such a mismatch to the realities of professional teaching? Like other professions, exposure and dabbling is not enough. Brushing teeth daily does not provide valuable insight into the complexity of dentistry. Pick-up basketball does little to condition players for the demands and skills required in the NBA. Even experience in a high school band alone would fall far short of preparing a violinist for the Philadelphia Philharmonic. In teaching, understanding, balancing, and meeting the demands of the children, the families, and the communities they serve requires rigorous academic work in pedagogy, paired with intensive training, from high-quality, well-matched expert lead educators, in an immersive program-offered in the Classroom Academy.
So how can the process of teacher training and preparation be improved to overcome public perception of simplicity and meet these complex demands of students, districts, and the communities they serve? Through an innovative model of preparation that intertwines rigorous study of pedagogy with immersive practice, and the guidance, feedback, and support of carefully selected and matched expert teachers and building leaders: the Classroom Academy. 
|
....And once we mess with the minds and hearts, we are prepared to take responsibility for the messes we have made, the dreams we inspired, the minds we have brought to life, the prejudices we have forestalled, and the society to which we have given hope." 
To illustrate, let’s consider learning to juggle. First picture the backyard, a couple soft palm sized balls. Now imagine, mastering the depth of skill required for Barnum and Bailey’s in a circus tent, high above the crowd, riding a unicycle with various objects expertly flying through your hands, to be caught and deftly returned to the air while seamlessly traveling across the wire, balanced precariously on one wheel. Different skill set? Absolutely. A balancing act that requires precision and skillful execution. As with any complex task, it is a gradual process encompassing countless hours of study, scaffolding, and practice before ever taking the stage.
|
The Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES does not discriminate in its programs and activities, including employment and admission as applicable, on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, economic status, marital status, veterans' status, political affiliation, domestic victim status, use of a guide dog, hearing dog or service dog, disability, or other classifications protected under federal or state law, and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The designated district compliance officer(s) will coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination requirements of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, and the New York State Human Rights Law. The BOCES Civil Rights Compliance Officer is: Turina Parker, Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES, 267 Ballard Road, Suite 5, Wilton, NY 12831. phone: (518) 581-3716, email: tuparker@wswheboces.org. Complaints may also be filed with the Office for Civil Rights, New York Office, U.S. Department of Education, 32 Old Slip, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10005- 2500, phone (646) 428-3800, fax (646) 428-3843, email:OCR.NewYork@ed.gov.