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Education students gear up for new curriculum requirements


The Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College is implementing a new program, iTeachAZ, to provide students with a well-rounded teaching experience.

Elizabeth Hinde, director of the Teachers College Division of Teacher Preparation, said the iTeachAZ program has expanded the education major’s student teaching requirement from one semester to a full academic year, but many students in the program are strongly against the extension.

“We were told they were going to try it out this year,” elementary education and sociology senior Nada Sarsour said. “It was difficult knowing that we are basically just guinea pigs just to try it out.”

iTeachAZ will be in place in fall 2012 pending approval, Hinde said.

Some education students are having trouble balancing their education and finances with the extended time in the classroom.

Student teachers spend four full days in assigned classrooms and take nine hours of college courses on Wednesdays.

A student teaching position requires the same amount of time spent in a classroom as a professional teacher, but is unpaid.

Students also have to spend time on their own classes and homework, as well as managing bills and other finances.

Sarsour said the new program was unexpected.

“I didn’t believe it. I was shocked,” Sarsour said. “I didn’t really think it was going to take place.”

Sarsour also said she feels like there’s no flexibility at all with the program.

Joel Duke, a senior who is in a dual certification program for special education and elementary education, said he was lucky enough to be able to move back home, which relieves a lot of financial stress.

Some students do not have that luxury.

“They’d student teach from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then work at restaurants from 6 p.m. to midnight. I’ll see girls falling asleep in their classes on Wednesdays,” Duke said. “But you just have to do it or you don’t move on in the program.”

Duke said he does not understand why the program was not implemented for incoming freshman rather than current seniors, who had been planning for only a semester of student teaching.

“They sat us down in a giant cattle call of our entire major and told us about the (iTeachAZ) program … at the very end they said, ‘OK, now sign this paper and this is your program,’” Duke said. “This is the first time I’ve ever gotten to talk to anybody about this. They don’t let any of us bring anything up.”

Hinde said the College had to start somewhere and received all the needed approvals.

“This is the best way to prepare teachers,” she said.

Research shows spending more time in a classroom makes students coming out of college more like second- or third-year professional teachers rather than first-year teachers, Hinde said.

Both Sarsour and Duke said they enjoy extra time with the kids and seeing their growth.

They said the program will help them be more employable out of college, but right now the stress and long hours of the program are overwhelming.

“The benefit of this program is that I love being with the kids … Being in a class all week is great, but being in a class for 50 hours a week not making any money and having to work outside is really, really tough,” Duke said.

Hinde said the program offers scholarship opportunities to help get them through the year, but many students don’t take them.

“We have thousands and thousands of dollars in scholarships that these students don’t claim,” Hinde said.

Sarsour said the program is unfair because some other students in other majors get paid for their year-long internships.

“To be doing this voluntarily, for us to be giving an entire year … as college students trying to support ourselves, it’s difficult,” Sarsour said.

The new program came on so suddenly for students, both Duke and Sarsour said many of their classmates have dropped out as a result.

“So many students said, ‘We did not know this would be a year long (program) without getting paid, this is ridiculous,’” Sarsour said.

Hinde said there were no numbers available for how many students have dropped the program.

“It’s hard to tell if they dropped because of the year-long student teaching or if they dropped because of the economy,” she said. “There are a lot of reasons why people drop our program.”

 

Reach the reporter at kmmandev@asu.edu

 

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