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The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS

Teaching Secrets: 10 To-Dos for New Teachers

Teaching Secrets: 10 To-Dos for New Teachers

College commencements are in the air, and while the thoughts of some new teacher graduates are no doubt turning to the beach or summer jobs, other freshly minted educators are already envisioning their first classrooms full of students, each with his or her own special learning needs.

Please click here to view the entire article from EdWeek.

The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS

iTunes Texas Education Channel Launched

Texas students can now download podcasts, videos and other multimedia lessons directly from iTunes through a new online program aimed at providing free, supplementary coursework that can be accessed anywhere, state officials announced Tuesday.

The Texas Education iTunes U channel allows teachers to upload material from their classes to help students understand new concepts or do more research in a specific subject area. Students and parents can access the material through home or school computers, and those with iPods can download the information to the handheld devices.

Please click here to view the entire article from Education Week.

The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS

Undergraduate Teacher-Training in Texas Come Up Short

Many Teacher-Training Programs in Texas Come Up Short

By Katherine Mangan

4/30/10

The National Council on Teacher Quality release on Thursday a scathing critique of teacher-education programs across Texas.

The two-year study of 67 undergraduate schools of education in the Lone Star State finds that many fail to provide adequate teacher training in science, mathematics, and reading. The nonpartisan research and advocacy group, which has issued reports critical of training programs in other states, also concluded that teacher-education requirements vary across Texas, "with no apparent rationale."

Among its findings:

• Sixty-three of the 67 schools (94 percent) lack "proper content in mathematics that elementary teachers need."
• Eighty-four percent of the schools inadequately prepare middle-school teacher candidates in the subjects they will be teaching.
• Three-quarters of the schools ignore a state regulation that requires them to train elementary-school teacher candidates in effective methods of reading instruction.
  

read on... http://www.nctq.org/edschoolreports/texas/docs/report.pdf

The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS

Panel Finds No Favorite in Teacher-Prep Pathways

After six years of study, a national panel of prominent scholars has concluded that there’s not enough evidence to suggest that teachers who take alternative pathways into the classroom are any worse­—or any better­—than those who finish traditional college-based preparation programs.

The full article from Education Week can be view here.

The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS

Alternate Path for Teachers Gains Ground

Alternate Path for Teachers Gains Ground

Not long ago education schools had a virtual monopoly on the teaching profession. They dictated how and when people became teachers by offering coursework, arranging apprenticeships and granting master’s degrees.

Dan Cosgrove, in his second year with Teach for America, in his classroom at Leadership Prep in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

But now those schools are feeling under siege. Officials in Washington, D.C., and New York State, where some of the best-known education schools are located, have stepped up criticisms that the schools are still too focused on theory and not enough on the craft of effective teaching.

The entire article can be read here.

The Leader in Educator Certification, iteachTEXAS