NEW BERLIN – As New York State implements the new Common Core Curriculum mandate, a new crop of teachers face new challenges and will have to develop a new approach to relay the advanced education to students and current faculty alike.
The initiative, which serves as the largest such educational reform in the country's history, aims to bring the US higher in the world wide rankings in education.
For more than 30 years, the Unadilla Valley Central School District has hosted student teaching positions. Currently, the district offers three programs for college students looking at teaching careers: hosting students from the SUNY Oneonta Mentor Community 3TL (Three Teach Learn) initiative, where pre-service teachers work with teachers in the district; helping students get their participation hours or classroom time where the college student is involved with students but has not prepared a plan for instruction; and by hosting student teacher candidates.
Today’s student teachers will undoubtably endure mounting criticism from parents and communities alike regarding the content of new mandated curriculum, but most will embrace the challenge.
Justin Tasior, a student teacher intern at UV, said he eagerly looked forward to teaching sophomore math students this year because he wanted “to apply all that he learned” at SUNY Oneonta.
Tasior wants to become a teacher, he says, because of his love of kids, being able to shape their future, and helping them see the importance of math in their lives. He said since the SUNY Oneonta program requires more than 150 classroom hours, he’ll be well-prepared when he lands his first teaching job.
Said Tasior, “SUNY Oneonta has a great program and they give you a lot of experience. When I started at UV, I was surprised a little because meeting the demands of the range of students’ abilities is challenging, but that’s fun ... I think that the kids really enjoy having me in class. I am different than their regular teacher and maybe I can relate to a younger crowd,” Tasior added.
Host teacher Danette George monitors Tasior’s classroom performance while she completes weekly observational worksheets that will be used to assess his strengths and weaknesses.
George said she is pleased to accommodate student teachers in her class room. States George, “I graduated from SUNY Oneonta and I try to host teachers every other year.”
“We want to renew and promote the profession because someone helped us out years ago and we want to return the favor,” said High School Principal Frank Johnson.
Johnson added, “We have a good working relationship with SUNY Oneonta. The students are very prepared when the come into the classroom. The College understands that our teachers may be more reluctant to host students with Common Core education, but they do a good job of preparing them on campus, so we are getting very good candidates.”