EDC 672 First Year of Teaching

Even the most well-educated and motivated new teachers can become overwhelmed with the many roles they must balance during their first years in their profession. Faced with multiple preparations, student work to assess, and professional meetings, it can be difficult to apply instructional strategies that are less familiar. Strategies learned through direct experience during a new teacher's own years of K-12 education are often the most familiar. Because they are familiar, these methods may overshadow some of the innovative instructional strategies explored in teacher preparation courses.Designed specifically for the first- and second-year teachers, this course provides an opportunity to reinforce the many student-centered instructional possibilities that exist within the context of participants' own classrooms. Working in a collegial environment of new teachers from throughout the greater Capital Region, participants will use the information they have about their new and continuing assignments as a guide for developing their ideas into concrete curriculum plans that incorporate multiple intelligence theory, simulations, technology, thematic units, essential questions, the arts, the interdisciplinary links, as well as performance and authentic assessments. Teachers will leave with a completed scope and sequence, multiple ideas for creative instructional applications and an expanded network of supportive colleagues. (1 credit)