In September, representatives from six partnership schools of education (UNT, UNT Dallas, UTA, SMU, TAMUC, TWU), two school districts (Dallas ISD and Uplift) and Commit! staff attended the 4-day “Excellence at Scale” conference at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Together, we learned about the iTeachAZ program, which shares the common mission of all partners in ensuring all children have good teachers, with unique emphasis on deep, authentic school-university partnerships. ASU certifies approximately 1000 teachers annually, in partnership with 26 districts across Arizona (70% of which are Title 1 schools).
Several hallmarks of the iTeachAZ program emerged as particularly exciting for our North Texas institutions as we explore opportunities to learn from and share best practices:
1. Teacher candidates complete classroom internships during the junior year, and a 2-semester Senior Year Residency conducted in a co-teaching model with district mentor teachers
2. ASU faculty members are embedded in the districts 5 days a week to act as liaison and ensure quality of the residency experience for teacher candidates, and collaborate with the district mentor teachers on feedback and coaching for the teacher candidate
3. Teacher candidate assessments are standardized, rigorously normed and assess demonstrated student learning as result of the teacher candidate’s practices
The team at ASU Inspire has very generously opened up their curriculum resources and on-demand Professional Learning Library to the broader educator prep community. As context, the Sanford Inspire Program is a gift-funded project within the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU. They “work to ensure that each child has an inspirational teacher, one with excellent teaching and relationship building skills. To that end, we create On-Demand Modules: 60-minute micro-courses that develop teachers’ knowledge, skills, and mindsets around specific elements of inspirational teaching.” Take a look and consider how you might be able to use these available tools in your own networks and practice!
Links to Resources
· On-Demand Module Overview Video
· Sanford Inspire Program Curriculum Resource Catalog
o A description of all our available resources and documents to support use of the resources.
· Sanford Inspire Program Website
· SanfordInspireProgram@asu.edu
Upcoming ASU Webinars
· https://connect.asu.edu/personalizedpd/
· Wednesday, October 14th at 4pm MST (7pm EST)
· Thursday, October 29th at 4pm MST (7pm EST)
