Program Schedule

Bridges to the Future takes place in the Greenfield, Gill-Montague and Mahar Regional school districts. Throughout the year your roles and responsibilities will change according to where you are in the four phases of the program. The cohort of teacher candidates will move through the four phases together. A general outline is listed below. Dates and times may change in order to meet the needs of instructors.

Phase One: During the first seven weeks, from late August to mid-October, you will engage in two intensive onsite courses-- The Work of the Middle and High School Teacher and Prepracticum/Microteaching. In addition, you will begin two fall semester long courses. Education in Context will meet onsite and subject specific teaching methods courses will meet on-campus. These courses will require you to conduct classroom observations, develop lessons plans, engage in microteaching, connect with community agencies, work within the community, read a variety of texts, and write reflections and curriculum units. Phase One courses will be held Monday through Thursday with the exception of the Work of the Middle and High School Teacher, which meets two times weekly for seven weeks during the public school day.

Phase Two: In early October, having completed the Work of the Middle and High School Teacher and Prepracticum/Microteaching, you will begin two new courses, which will last until the December school break: Student Teaching and The Teacher in the Middle and High School Classroom: A Reflective Seminar in Teaching. In Student Teaching, you will work closely with a supervising practitioner teacher in the school, as well as a program supervisor, as you teach two or three courses (depending upon the school’s classroom period schedule), engaging not only in teaching, but also lesson planning and curriculum development. The reflective seminar will provide an opportunity to reflect upon your experiences and help to ground you in the theory upon which you are making your choices in the classroom. The Methods courses and Education in Context will continue through the University semester. Phase two is completed when the schools begin their Holiday Break in December.

Phase Three: In January you will return to the school and your classrooms for most of the month. During this time, there may be a few after school classes scheduled or times when you are pulled from your schools for university coursework in integrating technology into the classroom and the needs of special education students.

Phase Four: At the beginning of the public school spring semester you will begin your Clinical Teaching Internship in which you will be the teacher of record for two or three classes within the context of a mentoring relationship with a public school teacher. Your academic work will include Leadership in Education, in which you will complete your community service learning project, Adolescent Growth and Development, and a Reflective Seminar on Clinical Teaching. These courses will take place onsite and on-campus. Your duties as a Teaching Intern are completed at the end of the public school’s teacher year, after grades have been turned in.

Timeline