Monthly Updates From the Center for School Partnerships and Teacher Certification
APR ’14
“Getting To The Core” Throughout New York State, many school districts are requiring all Teacher Candidates to become fingerprinted prior to student teaching and beginning field experiences. Therefore, the Center for School Partnerships and Teacher Certification will be monitoring TEACH accounts and ensuring that our candidates are fingerprinted prior to beginning a field experience. Teacher Candidates who plan to student teach in New York City will receive additional information pertaining to New York City specific forms. If you have not completed the fingerprinting process, please follow the instructions listed below today: 1. Create a TEACH account with the NYS Education Department. 2. Apply and pay online ($91.50) through your TEACH account. Print a copy of the receipt. 3. Contact St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES by calling 315-386-4504 to schedule an appointment to be fingerprinted. Please press “O” and ask to speak with Sheena or Robin and advise you are a SUNY Potsdam teacher candidate. 4. Attend scheduled appointment at 40 West Main Street, Canton, NY and bring your receipt from step #2. 5. One week after your fingerprints have been scanned, please check your TEACH account for fingerprint clearance. Please go to TEACH Online Services and look for the statement, “Your DCJS and FBI results have been received.”
If you have any questions about the fingerprint process, please call the Center for School Partnerships and Teacher Certification at (315) 267-3022
“Bite By Bite” April ’14 Sun
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7th Teacher Education Student Association Meeting, Satterlee Hall 301, 7:30 PM
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14th Teacher Education Student Association Meeting, Satterlee Hall 301, 7:30 PM
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26th Elevate the discourse on education and educators. A screening of TEACH and a discussion on collaborating, mentoring, and leading a new generation into this critical field, Sheard Literacy Center (Upstairs), 6:30 PM
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Upcoming dates to save! May 17, 2014 - Master’s Commencement May 18, 2014 - Bachelor’s Commencement
“Fresh Pick Of The Month� Natalie Lukas, Director SUNY Urban Teacher Education Center (SUTEC) Every year over 200 students from 17 campuses come down to NYC to do their student teaching. There are so many reasons why selecting NYC is a wonderful gateway to the profession of teaching, but most of all, it is the opportunity to be part of the busiest city in the world and experience the multi-cultural atmosphere that exists nowhere else. To teach in NYC is to experience a semester abroad, all within the 5 boroughs of NYC. SUTEC was founded in 2001 to provide a living environment to learn about ALL children, from many different backgrounds and collaborate with urban educators. Candidates will experience the best practices in teaching students across the range of abilities, backgrounds and the unexpected plus has been the opportunity to absorb the multi-cultural wonderland that is NYC. Of course, during their stay here in NYC student interns are encouraged to visit the various enclaves that represent the communities that thrive within the city. Yes, it is obvious that a visit to Chinatown will give us a glimpse of immigrant culture, in an area in which Chinese is still the main language and new immigrants are coming daily. Many of our students are shocked to learn that a bigger community exists in Queens, home to both Chinese and Korean communities. A trip on the #7 train can take our students to areas that house Greek, Mexican, Indian and Philippine communities. Needless to say, the best part is getting off the train and eating in all the incredible restaurants along the route. Located in the Bronx are the Puerto Rican, Italian and Albanian communities, as well as the little New England fishing village with incredible seafood, City Island! Upper Manhattan is home to the largest Dominican community in America and provides an opportunity to sample the cuisine and practice Spanish, while going to Brooklyn might provide the opportunity to speak French in the largest Haitian community in America.
NYC has the largest school system in America, serving a population more diverse than we can even begin to imagine. The New York City Department of Education website has information in 10 languages, while others are available for those with unique needs. Ah, the culture! NYC boasts world class museums, a tremendous array of theaters and other entertainment venues, many of which are available to students at very low or no cost. Students get to participate in holiday celebrations (such as Chinese New Year), which cannot be found anywhere else within the U.S. Many students coming here are anxious to teach urban students from lower income homes and are shocked that along with ethnic diversity comes incredible economic diversity. Our school partners include those in areas that are not only suburban, but very affluent, while others are located in challenging high needs areas. Students get to handle the problems that affect all students, not just those who are economically disadvantaged. Stereotypes are quickly discarded as our student teachers interact with the full array of children who attend NYC schools. Most of our students find the semester here both challenging and enriching (sometimes fattening!), and many opt to remain here to teach. A visit to NYC schools provides a roadmap of past SUTEC participants from all our campuses who have reached out to become the next generation of mentor teachers to those daring to spend a semester abroad, here in NYC.
“Planting Seeds” Migrant Education is a federally funded program that provides a variety of services to migrant families in New York State. Our local program, North Country Migrant Education Program (NCMEP), provides services to families living in St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton and Essex Counties. Families who have moved across state or school district lines and are employed in agriculture, dairy farming, or lumbering may be eligible. Children (infant through graduation or twenty-one) are included. Once a family is eligible they will be part of our program for three years with a possible extension if the family moves within those three years. Services provided through our program include academic school year and summer tutoring, teen activities throughout the school year and summer, a liaison between schools and homes, advocacy for both students and families, scholarships to attend summer camps, help connecting families with other outside agencies, and assisting students who have dropped out of school to obtain their GED. TUTORING Our program has a strong early childhood program where tutors work in the home with both the student and the parents to help jumpstart their education and teach skills that will help the child be ready to attend school. During our summer program we not only provide tutoring services, but also educational fun field trips that take students to places they may never be able to visit. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT Our program also has a strong emphasis on helping parents become active in their child’s education. We host two Parent Involvement Events. Both events offer parents and children with fun, yet educational activities throughout the afternoon. These events provide the families a place to spend quality time together and to meet other families with similar lifestyles. Our program also values the input from parents regarding the activities and services we provide. There are regular Parent Advisory Council meetings where the staff from the program and parents meet to discuss goals at both the local and state level, create program goals and discuss what concerns they have with regards to their children’s academic success. Parents also have the opportunity to participate in the state parent meetings where they hear concerns from other areas in our state.
For more information on the program or to become a volunteer, please contact: Megan Foster, Director fosterml@potsdam.edu or 315-267-2510
“A Taste of Success” Spotlight: Chelsey Smith Secondary Spanish Education
I grew up in Freedom, NY. While you might imagine me waking to bells of liberty, the
reality is that the music of my childhood consisted of cows mooing, speckled with the beat of shotguns in the background. I moved to Potsdam, another rural area, to study Spanish Education after high school.
Now, I’m student teaching in NYC. Living in NYC has been a dream of mine for quite a while. The architecture, the diversity, even just the hustle of people in the streets – that’s something that I never had growing up. Walking down the streets, you hear tongues caressing the nuances of a hundred different languages, and pass by people who have themselves traveled the path of a hundred different walks of life. It’s an incredible experience. At first, I was entranced by the differences I saw everywhere. While NYC is part of the state, it operates under its own regulations. My students have completely different influences and lives than any that I’ve taught in the past. At the heart of it all, though, they’re still my students. They may commute to school via subway instead of a yellow bus, but they still get upset when they’ve had an argument with their best friend, and they still hate conjugating verbs. While teaching here isn’t without its difficulties – the long commute, the expense I’ve had one of the most basic principles of being an educator reinforced for me: at the end of the day, the students are what really matter. Taking the lessons I’ve learned in Potsdam and applying them in a different environment is better preparation than I could have ever hoped for.
And through it all, I’ve learned that students are students, and no matter where I go,
I am a teacher.
Amy Guiney, Director 111 Satterlee Hall (315) 267-3450 guineyaj@potsdam.edu
Nicole Feml, Assistant Director 112A Satterlee Hall (315) 267-3022 femlna@potsdam.edu
http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/SOEPS/fieldexperiences/index.cfm