Honors Senior Teaching
The Senior Teaching Option is intended for selected graduating seniors who are contemplating becoming professional teachers and who wish to gain experience working with an Honors instructor in an interdisciplinary setting. Students wishing to be senior teachers must be bona fide Honors students, have senior classification, and have completed a minimum of 18 UHP credit hours by the teaching semester. You must have either taken the course they wish to co-teach or have taken a seminar with your chosen Master Teacher. Carefully review the pre-application and application procedures for this option. If selected students will complete a prep-semester (not available during summer semesters) and a teaching-semester, both worth 3 credit hours each.
Students interested in senior teaching must start the process when they are second semester sophomores or juniors. Begin by picking a potential Master Teacher who will interview you as a potential senior teacher applicant.
The Application Proccess
Mandatory Pre-Application Information Sessions
Before filling out an application, students and first-time Master Teachers are required to attend an Information Session that the UHP will offer every semester. The dates, times and location of the next Information Session will be posted on the Upcoming Events page. In this meeting students and faculty will get a better idea of what senior teaching involves in terms of time, commitment and work loads. Faculty and students interested in this option must have attended an Information Session the semester before they submit a course proposal.
Applications and Course Proposal Deadlines
Once you and your Master Teacher have decided to co-teach, complete the Student-Teaching Application. This must accompany the Master Teacher's course proposal, which is submitted to the Honors Curriculum Committee on August 1st (for Spring courses) or December 1st (for Fall courses).
Once the Curriculum Committee approves the course your Master Teacher will notify you to register for the Senior Teaching Preparation component (UHON 492) worth 3 credit hours.
Master Teacher Requirements
Master Teachers are mentors during the the application process, as well as during the preparation and teaching process. They must be aware of all the steps and requirements and advise students on the process, as well as guide them through the preparation requirements to ensure students fulfill all expectations.
First-time Master Teachers, or faculty other than UHP Continuing Faculty members must attend the Mandatory Information Session metioned above. Faculty who agree to be Master Teachers may accept one senior teacher and one prep student per semester due to the time and effort expected in mentoring.
The "Prep" Semester
During the preparatory semester, Master Teachers and students must agree in writing to the student teacher responsibilities for the teaching semester. This agreement will serve as a contract. In this agreement, Master Teachers and student teachers must share 50% of all tasks involved in teaching the seminar. "Prep" students and Master Teachers will begin weekly meetings to begin planning the course, selecting materials, readings and activities. Early in the semester, the Master Teacher will provide a copy of the UHP Senior Teaching Resource Packet to be used in discussion with the prep-student. Prep-students and Master Teachers will also participate in discussions and assignments posted on the Senior Teacher Blog.
Throughout the course of the prep-semester it is expected that you will:
- Master the content
- Collect the intellectual agenda about texts/authors (content)
- Form a plan (syllabus)
- Have knowledge about a variety of methodologies, papers, in-class exercises, projects, etc., which are grounded in the content
- Understand the professional role of being a teacher
- Be prepared to teach
At the end of the semester you will write a final "Mastery of Content" paper (minimum 5-8 pages), a plan for facilitating one entire class period (i.e., what activities and readings will be incorporated that day, how those materials relate to the curriculum of course, etc.), and an annotated bibliography of all books read to prepare for the class. The final paper is due on the Friday before exam week. One copy will be given to the Master Teacher and another copy to the Honors office for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Honors Library.
For acceptable examples of past Mastery of Content papers, please review the Senior Teaching binders in the Honors Library (in Room 25, also known as the computer pod).
WARNING: In the event the course is cancelled (when enrollment does not meet or exceed a minimum of 12 students), you will need to be prepared to enroll in an alternate Senior Option. Faculty may not "shift" the prep-student to another seminar. Doing so would not allow adequate time to prepare for a new course.
Prep-Semester Workshop
Prep students and Master Teachers must attend a mandatory Senior Teaching Workshop to be scheduled every semester on the Friday after break (Fall or Spring Break). At this Workshop, one or two faculty members will facilitate discussion and prep-students will get to confer and collaborate with teaching-students to discuss what teaching is like. Students are expected to arrange their schedules accordingly to attend this meeting as a component of their prep semester. Senior Teachers are to have read the Senior Teaching Resource Packet before this meeting, and come prepared with questions related to the ideas and materials in this packet.
The Blog
At the beginning of each semester (preparatory or teaching) a blog for continuous on-line collaboration is set up for prep-students, student teachers and Master Teachers. The blog allows these unique colleagues to comminicate with each other and give support. Students and faculty are required to participate on the blog, and should use it as a tool to enhance their teaching expertise.
The Teaching Semester
During this second semester of the Senior Teaching Option, prep-students will put last semester's planning to use, participating in all aspects of guiding and facilitating an Honors seminar under the direction of the Master Teacher.
The Co-Teaching Dynamic
Master Teachers must not allow student teachers to prepare all classes by themselves or be completely in charge of all classes during the teaching semester. This is a co-teaching experience and the Master teacher is ultimately responsible for the success of the class. In order to create this unique working dynamic Master Teachers and their student teachers must hold weekly pre-seminar meetings of at least one hour, covering the intellectual agenda for the day. They should also hold a post-seminar debriefing and must adhere to the contract made in the previous semester regarding shared responsibilities. The Master Teacher ensures he/she is dedicating ample time to mentor the student teacher throughout this semester.
Flying Solo
The Master Teacher must allow the student teacher to facilitate at least 1 (or 2) classes independently. (The student should use the plan for one class facilitation created during the preparatory semester). Student teachers must also facilitate one class completely alone (with no Master Teacher present during one hour and fifteen minutes, or part of an entire class period). The rest of the time, Master Teacher and student teacher should always facilitate classes together.
Senior Teaching Workshop and Synthesis Meeting
Student teachers and Master Teachers must attend 2 mandatory meetings during the teaching semester. The first is a Senior Teaching Workshop scheduled for the Friday after the semester break (Fall Break or Spring Break). Along with discussions, student teachers meet with prep-students and go over what teaching is really like. Student teachers will schedule a second meeting before the end of the semester to synthesize and share their experiences. This meeting can also be used to stimulate ideas for the final papers.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the semester student teachers write a final paper reflecting on what student-teaching has meant to their lives and their education, including both positive and negative aspects. The paper is more than just a response and more than just anecdotes; it must be a well though-out synthesis of the two-semester process. Some students use a simile to describe their experiences: "Teaching is like...." In any case it has to be reflective and thoughtful with a specific title. The length of the paper ranges from 10-15 pages and is due the Friday before exam week. One copy is given to the Master Teacher and a second copy is given to the Honors Director for permanent inclusion in the Honors Library.
For acceptable examples of final papers, please review the Senior Teaching binders in the Honors Library (in Room 25, also known as the computer pod).
Evaluations
Students taking the co-taught get to evaluate the Student Teacher. During the last week of class, student teachers must print off ample copies of the Student Teacher Evaluation Form and distribute to students. Master Teachers will collect these evaluations and keep them confidential until until grades have been posted for the students.
To maintain anonymity, the Student Teacher should not be present when the forms are returned to the Master Teacher. After grading is completed, Master Teachers can review the comments and scores. (Student teachers can also distribute an optional Mid-Term Evaluation before semester break.)
Additionally Master Teachers must evaluate the Student Teacher by completing a Final Evaluation of Student Teachers.
Finally, Student and Master Teachers share the responsibility of evaluating the students in the co-taught class. They do this by completing Honors Student Evaluations for the class, which the Honors Office emails to the Master Teacher.
