University of Minnesota Project Report 2009
Early Teaching Experiences
Successes
- Students were placed in high school physics classrooms to observe/volunteer and to begin working toward the completion of the 100 hours of such time required for acceptance to the University of Minnesota CEHD licensure program.
- Students were placed with several different teachers resulting in a variety of different experiences for them.
Challenges
- Many students have transportation limitations and this limits the pool of teachers with whom they can be placed.
- Establishing regular communication with students that are in classrooms continues to be an ongoing challenge.
Sustainability/Institutional Buy-In
- We are absolutely committed to continuing this level of field experiences. Each semester, we recruit several more mentor teachers, via word of mouth, the TAG, and QuarkNet, to maintain the appropriate number of potential classrooms.
- We are working with CEHD to maximize these experiences for these students.
Lessons Learned
- Providing students with the opportunity to observe/volunteer in a high school physics classroom is an important aspect of their decision to pursue teaching as a career choice.
- Allowing students to interact with others that are also spending time in classrooms helps them connect with and establish a peer group of like-minded individuals.
Activity Summary
- Periodic Informal discussions with the group of students that have indicated an interest in teaching physics are held.
- Students are placed in high school physics classrooms to observe/volunteer.
- Students in classrooms keep a journal of activities and a log of the hours spent
- This component of the program is organized and managed by the PhysTEC group and is not formally supervised by faculty of CEHD.
- Participating students are both being exposed to the “nuts and bolts” of their potential career choice and accumulating hours toward the 100 hours necessary for admission to CEHD licensure program.
University of Minnesota
