Secondary Teaching Preparation Program

Overview

In 2018, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) announced their updated “students-first” teacher certification system. Since then, faculty across EMU’s colleges and departments have taken this opportunity to collaborate and revitalize our teacher preparation program to incorporate the new professional standards and state requirements, and we were able to launch our work and vision through a series of workshops hosted by COE and CAS faculty. These workshops described the draft blueprint of the program, introduced their guiding anchor principles, reviewed high-leverage core teaching practices, and engaged participants in the work of integrating the anchor principles and core teaching practices in their activities and lessons. This initiative impacts faculty across EMU as many of us teach aspiring teachers in our content areas and general education courses, so all faculty, lecturers, and administration were invited to come to one or join all the planned sessions. Faculty and lecturers received an honorarium for participation in each session.

The Launch

In the first workshop in this series, participants received an overview for EMU’s secondary education program, a history of and description of the core anchors that guided the planning group’s vision, and an introduction to the high-leverage core teaching practices that MDE requires for the preparation of teachers. 

Anchor Activity Planning

Participants reviewed the anchors in more depth and crafted a lesson or activity that could be implemented in a class.

Core Teaching Practices (CTP) Planning

Participants reviewed the core teaching practices in more depth and crafted a lesson or activity that could be implemented in a class.

Sharing and Feedback

In this final workshop, participants shared their anchor and/or CTP lessons and gave feedback about their ideas for teacher preparation in their disciplines.