Preparing Future Teachers

Over the past week, I have been extremely busy preparing for and working with future teachers. I taught two classes at the local college, teaching first semester, college of education students. I hope I was able to teach them some things. They certainly taught me a lot! We are preparing these future educators to teach students to read and how to be successful learners. They receive training on how to identify the special needs of the students and what to do to accommodate special needs. With everything they are taught (and believe me I know what a great education they are receiving, I learned from some of these same professors. Two of the professors who are teaching them are my mentors. They are both very well respected and extremely knowledgeable especially in the field of education.)

 

Still, I realized something. They need an additional class. Not necessarily a semester long course, I think it would be better to offer a series of 2-3 meetings per semester. These future teachers need to be taught the tools that they can access to make them better prepared. They need someone who has been through the program that can talk more candidly, answer their questions and demonstrate teaching techniques. Most of all they need to be shown what they have for technology.

 

In setting up for my class, I put my Livetext (electronic portfolio) up on the screen. One student greeted me with "I hope you're not going to be teaching us Livetext." She went on to tell me how they had a couple of professors who were "always Livetext this and Livetext that" and that she was "Livetexted out." By the way this same girl ended up taking notes on what I had to offer about Livetext. I am certain that they have had many opportunities to see how to upload files into their Livetext. I am sure they have been shown how to set up their FEAPS and ESOL folders and how to submit items for review within these folders. What they haven't been shown is how to create their lesson plans in templates that use the schools preferred style of lesson plan (Charlotte Danielson's Lesson Plan). They needed someone to show them how to create documents in new files, incorporate links, files, videos, websites, research articles, worksheets, etc. They needed someone to demonstrate how to create rubrics and tests directly in their lesson plan. They needed to be shown how to print, copy, save and share their work.

 

Among these things, I also taught them about resources they needed to utilize. I taught them about the Discovery Education Network (DEN) including United Streaming. I showed them the Webinars that are offered in the DEN, telling them to take advantage of them. I showed them how to embed links from this resource directly into their lesson plan. I shared my social bookmarking account and told them how to set up their own. I shared this blog site and encouraged them to check it out. Then I challenged them to set up their own. I told them about some free resources that they could use either as a teacher or for their students. I taught them money saving lessons on how to get things they need without paying for them and without waiting for the school or county to be able to get it for them.

 

I stressed to them to make their selves more marketable. I said to get at least dual certifications, one general education and one exceptional education and to do it to cover the grade levels they believe they preferred to teach. I told them to join the Council for Exceptional Children (at the national level if they could afford to do so, but at least at the local level). I urged them to make honors society and to join Kappa Delta Pi as soon as they are invited. All these things not only look good on a resume, but they are excellent resources that help the teacher continue to be the learner.

 

I pointed out how they were about to become teachers in a global society, filled with 21^st century learners and how their students could very well be smarter than them when it came to using technology. I demonstrated what the 21^st century learner looked like and gave personal examples of how they multi-task everything.

 

I closed by offering to be there for them. I know especially as a first year student, I would have appreciated having someone who had been there before me, to answer my questions and put my mind at ease. I encouraged them to email me, if they needed to and to periodically check my sites that I had shared with them. Then I invited them to come be part of my classroom. I suggested that they fulfill some of their hours in my classroom. I warned them that it would not be easy and that I would put them to work immediately, but that my class could be that deciding factor that they need.

I hope to continue to teach classes like this one to the next generations of future teachers.