Reflections Magazine Issue #51 - Summer 1999

Teaching Excellence 8 Graduate Education Program Promotes Lifelong Learning By Karla Pennington ‘00 “Teachers are also learners” underlies the graduate teacher education program at Siena Heights. The master’s degree program promotes an environment in which professors and graduate students interact for mutual understanding and appreciation for each other. One of the most respected teacher education programs in Michigan, Siena’s graduate program attracts teachers from throughout the Midwest. Locally, the impact of the Siena Heights graduate program “far surpasses typical graduate education for teachers because of the cooperative ventures with the Lenawee Intermediate School District and Adrian Public Schools,” according to program director Peggy Treece Myles. “We impact thousands of K-12 students in Lenawee County. I would say there is at least one Siena master’s program graduate in each school building in the county. Some graduates even come back to teach in our master’s program,” Myles said. At any given time, there are about 75 Lenawee County teachers taking graduate teacher education courses at Siena Heights. About 90 percent of Siena’s graduate education students are certified and / or practicing teachers who desire to learn more about the education field and to become better teachers, Myles said. Some are completing master’s degrees, while others are meeting the State of Michigan requirement of six credit hours of study every five years to maintain teaching certification. Still other program particicontinued next page last column years. “My cooperating teacher helped me develop the integrity I brought to the classroom. Each child is unique and deserves to be treated as such. I had to teach them to listen and to pay attention because what I was teaching was crucial to their development.” the new Performing Arts Center from cramped quarters in Sacred Heart Hall. “Besides our surroundings changing,” Grifﬁn recalls, “we adjusted our teaching methods from a lecture format to a curriculum that involves the full learning experience.” Mary also learned that “learning should be fun!” When Grifﬁn ﬁrst came to Siena Heights, she taught the elementary education courses while the late Sister Eileen Rice, OP ‘68 handled the secondary and vocational courses. Sister Eileen taught the undergraduate and graduate education courses simultaneously until the two programs were separated in 1988. Changing opportunities in the ‘70s In the 1970s, Siena Heights updated education requirements and course work due to new demands for teacher certiﬁcation from the Michigan Department of Education. Both the elementary and secondary teaching programs mandated that students complete liberal arts studies, an academic major and a minor, plus professional preparation. The elementary teaching program offered an option for three minors instead of a major and a minor. The college also offered occupational teacher certiﬁcation for students who transferred to Siena Heights with an associate’s degree in allied health, wage-earning home economics, or trade and industry, and for students who were teaching at vocational technical schools but desired certiﬁcation. All teacher education students took part in seminars and workshops in education, learned curriculum trends, and discovered how to handle children with learning problems. The stringent 1980s In the 1980s, teacher education requirements at Siena Heights again became more stringent. Applicants had to participate in one clinical experience, pass all college competencies and obtain recommendations from three faculty members, all prior to acceptance into the program. Reﬂecting the program’s arts afﬁliation, teacher education participants were required to audition for three theatre presentations and work on one stage crew as well as taking part in two nonschool teaching experiences and gaining 30 hours of observation before student teaching. The observation requirement was later increased to 100 hours and now stands at 250 hours. Until the late 1970s, the teacher education Astounding placement rates, Siena Heights continues to supprogram was housed in the college’s applied superior instruction, and port teaching as a constantly changing science division with Today’s business and criminal the high expectations of art form:must attend students justice majors and concentrated on manageveryone involved in the 10 Siena arts events and participate in ing the classroom. In 1978, teacher educaprogram seem to guarantee three theatre department workshops. tion became part of a new arts and education the continued strength of the Today’s candidates for the teacher division, and began program focusing on a broad teacher education program education pass the also must view of education— Michigan Test For how informal settings, at Siena Heights. Teacher Certiﬁcaformal institutions, tion’s basic skills social experiences and test and provide two the business world all impact learning. Students were encouraged letters of recommendation. Two more letters from Siena faculty members

Reflections Magazine Issue #51 - Summer 1999 | Seite 8