And that's what we want our graduates to do in their own classrooms put each student at the center of their efforts. Mentor teachers are paired with interns after the cohort leader consults individually with the school principal, mentor teacher, and intern. Beginning with planning sessions before the school year starts, interns work closely with their mentor teachers. From the first of the school year through Thanksgiving, interns spend two days a week in the classroom with their mentor. After spring break, the interns take the teaching reins full time.
Interns choose whether to be placed in a suburban or urban setting.
However, each intern is paired with another intern in a dissimilar school. Once a month they visit in each other's school to experience the diversity of other schools and students, and to observe other teaching styles. Interns are often encouraged by their mentors to visit in other classrooms in the school to gain a breadth of experience. Interns say the benefits of a yearlong placement of watching one group of students progress through an entire learning and curriculum sequence, of becoming part of the school culture and developing relationships with students are invaluable. Most of us have had some life experience, so the class dialogue is very rich.