August 2004
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt. 1301

Educators Collaborate on Innovative Summer School Program

Always looking for a better way to teach aspiring teachers, Bard College, in collaboration with Ulster BOCES Academic Summer School and Kingston City Schools Consolidated, has created an innovative summer partnership that may be the first of its kind. The educators are bringing 24 Bard student teachers who are enrolled in its new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program into summer school classrooms for some early teaching experience.

“It’s (the MAT program) unusual in that the student teachers have bachelor degrees in their fields of study and not in education. And it’s extraordinarily unusual for them to work in a summer school setting,” says Donna Elberg, coordinator of Public School Initiatives at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. “There’s no other graduate program in the area doing this.”

The core of the MAT program is an integrated curriculum leading to a Master of Arts degree and a teaching certificate in Adolescent Education in one of four areas: English, mathematics, physics, or history. Bard plans to expand the program to include certification in other fields, including art, biology, chemistry, foreign languages, and music. The program is unique in its approach, requiring advanced study in the academic disciplines as well as complementary field-based study of issues in teaching and learning; all combined with student-teaching experiences spread over the full academic year.

For the Bard students, spending a week in the Summer School program is just the beginning of the rigorous full-year, full-time program ahead of them. “Teachers can always use an extra tutoring hand and the student teachers make a perfect cadre of one-on-one tutors,” Elberg says. “It will be a busy week for them. They will observe classes in their particular discipline, discuss teaching techniques with their mentor teachers, and work with clusters of students as well as one-on-one.”

The Bard student teachers, representing three disciplines – English, social studies, and math – range in age from 22- to 56-years-old. “Some just graduated and decided what they really want to do is teach; some have been in a completely different career for many years and have decided they want to teach,” Elberg says. “It’s a real range of talents, but they basically have no education courses. After an intensive year of study, they will have an equal amount of coursework in education as well as in their field, and graduate with full teaching credentials for New York State.” For more information about Bard’s MAT program, please call 845-758-7139. For information about Ulster BOCES Academic Summer School, please call 845-255-1402 ext. 1256 or Email summer@mhric.org.