Teaching - 1 Year - Bard College

Teaching - 1 Year from Bard College is a Campus Master Teaching degree that prepares you for a Education career. The Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Bard College takes place over a full calendar year, from June to June. The course work and fieldwork are organized in a sequence of 10-week quarters. * A weeklong orientation session precedes the summer quarter that begins in June. * From September through May-that is, during the fall, winter, and spring academic quarters-MAT students spend 20 weeks in public school classrooms. * During the January Research Cycle, students focus on completing their academic research projects. This month long period also includes a sequence of workshops that prepare students for entering the job market as classroom teachers . * The concluding week of the program provides time for students to present their final research projects. ORIENTATION AND SUMMER QUARTER: The one-year MAT Program begins in June with a weeklong orientation session that is required of all incoming students. The orientation is designed to acquaint students with faculty, advisers, and each other, and to help them become familiar with the facilities and resources of Bard College. During orientation, all students participate in an intensive writing seminar (ED 502. Schooling in the 21st Century: A Learner Perspective) that introduces them to an alternative teaching model in which writing becomes the basis for collaborative learning. The summer quarter comprises five required courses-two in education, two in the student's chosen discipline, and a "lab strand" that explores the shared territory of questions about education and learning in an academic discipline-and a teaching assignment in which each MAT student works with students in a local summer school program. REQUIRED EDUCATION COURSES: The four required graduate-level courses in education that all students eventually take are meant to prepare teachers for the classroom. To that end, MAT students are expected to develop practical knowledge across a range of educational inquiry. This means that students read about cognitive psychology, for example, to help them understand the sociocultural contexts of classroom practices or the role of language in the construction of understanding. They read from the history of the field to help them recognize how different purposes and intentions in education offer alternative critiques of learning and teaching. As a result, MAT students learn to think about education from a new perspective. (See "Course Offerings and Descriptions" for details about THE DISCIPLINES: Six required graduate-level courses in their chosen field build on a student's undergraduate learning. The fundamental ideas of the discipline and its evolution as a field are emphasized to deepen the student's understanding of the subject, with a particular concern for improving instruction at the secondary level. Each student completes a graduate-level research project to acquire and demonstrate expertise in his or her field. (For details about the curriculum in each of the disciplines, see "Course Offerings and Descriptions.") THE TEACHING/LAB STRAND: During the summer and fall quarters, all one-year MAT students meet for an additional weekly three-hour class called the "teaching strand" or "laboratory." The class is taught by two faculty members-one from the field of education, the other from the academic discipline. Each week students turn their own academic questions into questions about teaching and learning. For example, a student in Math 514 (Algebra) might consider how a particular understanding of algebra they have gained at the graduate level could become a mode of approach to teaching algebra at the 9th-grade level. The student's investigation would incorporate models of learning and developmental concerns they were studying in ED 514 (Issues in Teaching and Learning), applying them to answer this particular teaching question. This laboratory class turns the more theoretical work of the graduate courses into investigations of practice in teaching and learning. Looking at educational standards as well as current demands in public education, students engage in a synthesis of the studies and experiences that characterize the MAT Program. CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE: MAT students start their field experiences in the public schools as tutors in a local summer school program. In September, one-year students begin the initial phase of a 20-week training period in a public school, either in the Hudson Valley or New York City, as participant observers. They become further engaged as they help with lesson planning and student assessment and, finally, take responsibility for a full teaching load during their apprenticeship. Throughout their student teaching experience, MAT participants investigate research questions and engage in the kinds of reflective practice that are essential to becoming effective teachers and succeeding in their future profession. Mentor teachers and graduate school advisers conduct regular observations and evaluations of each MAT student's teaching practices. Throughout the program, mentors and advisers collaborate with MAT students on research initiatives and projects. MAT students also meet regularly to support each other's work through shared writing, reflection, and discussion. Students bound for teaching assignments in New York City in the fall join the entire cohort of students for graduate studies on the Bard College main campus in Annandale-on-Hudson for the first quarter. One-year MAT Program students begin their field experiences with an immersion in the opening month of school in September. This first part of ED 536 continues when students return to the same school in February of the following calendar year. Students who enter the New York City schools at this time remain in the city, completing their fall quarter graduate courses on-site in the public schools that partner with the MAT Program. Students who enter the New York City schools at this time remain in the city, completing their fall quarter graduate courses on-site in the public schools that partner with the MAT Program. This alternative campus realizes an ideal of embedding a teacher-education program in a public school, creating opportunities for interactions between public school students, graduate students, and mentor teachers that benefit the learning of all parties. MAT faculty office spaces within these schools and ongoing support from the MAT Program ensure a continuity of services, building a community within the schools where the winter and spring apprenticeship cycles take place. This is a unique opportunity to participate in an exemplary model of teacher education aimed at training the best kinds of teachers while contributing to school improvement. JANUARY RESEARCH CYCLE: During the January Research Cycle, students take required, noncredit workshop sequences designed to develop teaching practices and communication skills, including public speaking. Other workshops focus on preparing MAT students for the professional job market. Advisers work with students on r?sum? preparation, cover-letter writing, interview skills, and strategies for locating openings in upstate and New York City schools. At the conclusion of the series of workshops, students are prepared to begin searching and applying for teaching positions as they become available. RESEARCH PROJECTS Academic Research Project: Students in each field of study are required to complete a research project that engages them in inquiry and the development of knowledge in their discipline. These projects are initiated during the summer quarter; they are described in more detail for each academic area as course descriptions, below. They represent an opportunity for students to pursue questions of personal interest while engaging in original work as independent scholars under the guidance of a faculty adviser. The results of these projects are presented during symposia in the closing week of the program in early June. Classroom Research Project: Students work as teacher-researchers, collaborating with a mentor teacher to explore classroom issues in teaching and learning. Research work begins in the summer quarter as students begin developing a literature review that helps to frame theoretical perspectives and support research design through a summary examination of pertinent research articles. Initial explorations in the fall quarter help mentor teachers and their apprentice partners design investigations that are implemented and completed in the winter or spring quarter. The results of these projects are shared at a gathering of the larger educational community during the closing week of the program. View more details on Bard College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Teaching courses.