B. What Are You Most Excited About Teaching?

1)  Take 10-15 minutes to write down answers to the following questions. After the 10-15 minutes are up, share the responses with your group.

a.  What are you most afraid of / anxious about / worried about for teaching next year?

b.  What are you most excited about teaching?

c.  What do you want your future students to leave the classroom with in terms of knowledge and skills? What do you need to learn about to help get your students there?

d.  What do you know and not know about developing curriculum, units, and lessons?

e.  What are your biggest questions about teaching? (How do I….?)

f.  What skills do you need? What knowledge do you need? What practices?

2)  Share your answers out as a group and start a list of things that you think would be necessary for us to learn about this year.

3)  Look over some of the below documents and see if there were things you were missing in your original list or that you don’t know about at all and add those to your list.

From MSU: College of Education

Source:__http://www.educ.msu.edu/college/mission.htm__
[1] We Prepare Professionals For Leadership Roles in Education.
Teaching is central to our scholarly identity and to the way we serve the educational needs of communities. We strive to develop and implement excellent, dynamic programs for the preparation of educators.
[2] We Seek to Understand, Reform, and Improve Education.
We study the processes of human learning and development. We move beyond analysis to promote education policy reform and assist in implementation. We seek to improve the conditions of learning and teaching for everyone in a technological society. We conduct comprehensive, rigorous research that addresses the needs and problems of practice. We strengthen connections between theory and practice through partnerships with schools and communities.
[3] We Examine Issues of Education Across the Lifespan.
We seek to understand how children and adults learn and develop, and how educators can best use that knowledge for the benefit of all learners. We recognize that all educators are themselves learners and we are committed to providing opportunities for their continuous professional development. We strive to sustain our College as a scholarly community for students, faculty and staff.

Enduring understandings from the Social Studies Team

[1] Teachers Create the Curriculum.
Curriculum is that from which we learn and it is never neutral. It embraces the what, how, and why of learning. Teachers use resources, materials, and student ideas to create learning opportunities that are meaningful, authentic, and socially-relevant.
[2] Teachers Value the Cultural, Social & Intellectual Funds Students Bring to School.
Teachers accept and value what children bring to school. Teachers scaffold learning by using students’ prior knowledge, prior life experiences, personal life goals, role models, values, and talents.

[3] Teaching is a Learning Profession.
Teachers continue to learn and grow as they provide access to learning for self and others. Teachers learn as they use past life experience to solve professional problems in the present and to imagine a better future. Teachers learn in collaboration with others. Outside of the classroom, teachers are always reading and everything they read is filtered through their teaching.
[4] Social Studies Teaching is Interdisciplinary & Connects Students to Their Worlds.
Social studies teachers create connections to the world through active inquiry and the use of dynamic teaching strategies. Social studies teachers pull out the “big ideas” as they investigate essential questions with their students. Social studies teachers connect students to the world around them through the curriculum and assessments they have created. Social studies teachers draw from all areas of knowledge (both academic and artistic fields) in their lessons and units.
[5] Teachers and Students are Citizens.
Citizens make informed choices and are aware of the impact of their choices on others (locally and globally). Citizens care both about the common good and the unique needs of individuals. Teachers and students recognize and respect each other as citizens of the classroom, school, community, nation and Earth.

From (some of) the Research

Shulman, L. S. (1987) Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

·  Content knowledge

·  General pedagogical knowledge

·  Curriculum knowledge

·  Pedagogical content knowledge

·  Knowledge of learners and their characteristics

·  Knowledge of educational contexts

·  Knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values

From another university: College of Saint Benedict, Saint John’s University

http://www.csbsju.edu/Education/Knowledge-Base.htm (retrieved 9/6/11)

Knowledge Base for Teacher Education

Table of Contents

·  Introduction

·  Program Goal I: Subject Matter

·  Program Goal II: Student Learning

·  Program Goal III: Diverse Learners

·  Program Goal IV: Instructional Strategies

·  Program Goal V: Learning Environment

·  Program Goal VI: Communication

·  Program Goal VII: Planning Instruction

·  Program Goal VIII: Assessment

·  Program Goal IX: Reflection and Professional Development

·  Program Goal X: Collaboration, Ethics, and Relationships