This year, Colonia High School reinvented an extremely popular class, made specifically for seniors. Formerly known as Teachers Apprentice Program (TAPs), Tomorrow’s Teachers has been redesigned with an entirely new curriculum.
Previously, TAPs was a program at Colonia where senior students were able to go to other schools within the district and receive hands-on experience with teaching in a classroom. It is still an elective only seniors can take, but with new changes students who wish to become teachers or educators in the future will feel better prepared for what will be expected from them.
With this new design, students have the ability to receive college credit with a dual enrollment program from Rider University. They learn the basic psychology of education and have college credit by the end of the year. Students also have class all year, switching every other day with another class. So, for the first half of the year, it’s all time spent in class. They do book work and learn what teaching in a classroom full of students is actually like. The second semester, however, is spent getting field experience in elementary or middle school classrooms. Compared to how the class used to be set up, being only one semester and very limited in-class time, this new setup allows for students to feel better prepared for a real classroom setting. Within the class, students get insight on how to teach different types of students, ones who may have learning disabilities or other issues. Students are able to apply what they learn to the classes they will later student teach in.
“I think that it’s better that we learn first, before we go so we know what to expect when we get there,” stated senior Kelly Mitch.
The ultimate goal with this new change is to allow for these future educators to better prepare themselves to guide their students. Before these seniors will even be entering a college classroom, they will have experienced field work and have college transcripts. This new program is also being used in other high schools throughout New Jersey.
Lindsay McNamara, the new teacher for Tomorrow’s Teachers, stated, “So far we have had positive feedback and excitement to be placed with elementary and middle school students in the spring.”
Students who think that education is something they’d like to pursue, Tomorrow’s Teachers will provide them with experience that will better prepare them for their college classes.
“This new program gives us experience with the kids and we get to learn how to handle every type of student,” commented senior Daisy Santos.
With this new program, students will feel better prepared to help their students in the future. This allows them to get hands-on experience likely much earlier than they may have expected and before students not offered this program who may wish to pursue education as well. This will prove to be very beneficial both to our nation’s education system and our future educators and students.
