Collaborate to Improve Teacher Preparation
Somewhere in the U.S., standing at the door of a classroom, a new lead teacher greets her students on the first day of school. She smiles as she shakes each student’s hand, and guides them to their organized, pre-arranged seats. When the class begins, she introduces herself and explains the classroom goals and the culture, which she hopes they’ll work together to create. After all, she’s done it before . Unfortunately, this teacher’s experience is not the norm. Most teachers will share how unprepared they felt in the classroom on their first day. Nightmare stories about classroom behavior and exhaustion abound, while most new teachers continue to brave their first year without the support and preparation that they need to thrive. We need our higher education institutions and school districts to collaborate to improve teacher preparation and provide teachers with rigorous, classroom-based preparation. It is essential that states and teacher preparation programs have universal ...