Education

Classroom teaching is a rewarding profession that enables articulate, caring, committed, and effective educators to help shape the lives and futures of diverse learners in an ever-changing world. The undergraduate Teacher Education programs at Elmira College assist initial teacher candidates in developing the content knowledge, teaching skills, and personal qualities necessary to promote and support student learning in elementary, middle, and secondary school classrooms. With critical thinking, listening, and speaking as cornerstones, Elmira College’s Teacher Education curriculum is designed to equip candidates with the essential skills needed to plan, construct, and deliver compelling lessons; create and maintain caring, nurturing, inclusive, and supportive learning environments; meaningfully assess learner performance and use student learning data to inform, modify, and adapt future instruction; integrate and use established and emergent technologies for instructional and assessment purposes; and reflect upon instructional practice as a means of achieving professional growth.

Embedded within all Teacher Education programs are several clinically rich teaching and learning experiences. Beginning in the freshman year, a six-week, Term III Introductory Fieldwork course enables candidates to work in area high-need schools with diverse learners, including students with disabilities. In-school, small-group tutoring opportunities are often incorporated into the junior-level Methods and Literacy courses. The six-week Student Teaching I course, which is offered during Term III of the junior year, may be completed by candidates in a local school or possibly at an overseas site. Finally, Student Teaching II is a twelve-week pre-service teaching experience where candidates apply their teaching knowledge, skills, and dispositions while assuming significant instructional loads from cooperating teachers.

Elmira College’s Teacher Education professors work closely with candidates to ensure they develop critical understandings of teaching and learning that meet the highest national standards, including those in the Common Core curriculum. Upon successful completion of all program and initial certification requirements, graduates of Elmira College’s Teacher Education programs enter their future teaching careers and graduate studies equipped with strong academic content knowledge, pedagogically sound instructional and assessment strategies, and heightened sensitivity to the needs of learners from socially, culturally, ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds.