2 — Tuesday, March 31, 2020
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The closure of all K-12 public
schools in Michigan has left
School of Education students —
who were in the middle of their
student-teaching or in-classroom
internships — using alternative
methods
to
complete
these
requirements.
Shortly after all K-12 public
schools in the state were closed
due to the threat of COVID-
19 on March 12, the Michigan
Department
of
Education
announced
that
universities
can now waive a portion of the
required hours if they feel the
student has met the expectations
of the state and school.
Dean
Elizabeth
Moje
said
the School of Education was in
constant contact with MDE as
the outbreak developed. She said
they have written confirmation
from MDE that students will be
able to receive the certification
remotely.
Moje said Education students
achieve
the
set
amount
of
required
hours
needed
for
certification prior to student
teaching. However, the school
has students receive additional
hours to be better prepared for
their teaching career.
“I’m confident that although
we all believe that the best
education is direct face-to-face,
clinical practice with children,
(MDE) will support us as we
work to provide the very best
alternatives for our interns and
student teachers,” Moje said.
In the first year of the two-year
School of Education program,
students
serve
as
teaching
interns two days a week for four
to five hours a day. Students
complete this internship, which
is referred to as their practicum,
for two semesters before serving
as student-teachers in their final
semester
before
graduating.
This
certification
process
is
part of the Educator Preparation
Program.
Though
students
will
still
achieve the required number of
hours, some Education students
are concerned that their ability
to advance through the program
will be impacted as many are
trying to achieve both a primary
and
secondary
endorsement.
An
endorsement
area
is
a
specific area, such as English
or Chemistry, that teachers are
certified to teach. For students
receiving an endorsement in two
areas, they require additional
time to complete the credits.
Education
junior
Alexa
Moore said she was worried
about achieving her secondary
endorsement in a world language
because she cannot travel abroad
due to the current restrictions.
Moore said there are very
limited
offerings
for
online
alternatives during the spring
and summer semesters. She said
she is worried about graduating
on time.
“I think a lot of the world
language people are in that same
boat where they’re trying to
figure out how to complete their
endorsement during the summer
so then they can be on track for
graduation and it just doesn’t
seem possible,” Moore said.
Moore was in the middle of
completing her practicum — the
internship that precedes student-
teaching — at the second of her
three assigned locations before
the University moved to online
classes. While many student-
teachers are still working to
create lesson plans and teach
their students remotely, the work
is different for juniors who are
completing
their
practicum.
Moore said her work was based
around
reading,
analyzing
articles and writing essays.
Similarly,
Education
junior
Kayla Chinitz said it is difficult to
complete the practicum remotely,
as face-to-face interaction with
students is the most beneficial
way to learn. Currently, Chinitz
is writing essays as an alternative
method to complete the course.
“One of my assignments was
on summative versus formative
assignments and writing a 500-
word essay on that doesn’t quite
feel the same as being in the
classroom,” Chinitz said.
Education
senior
Lauren
Robisch, who is student-teaching
at Pioneer High School, said
while she is sad she will not be
able to complete her student-
teaching in person, she said she
thinks this abrupt change is
providing a learning experience
in preparing for the unexpected.
“It’s kind of given me a lot of
flexibility and thinking about
what I need as a first-year teacher
and what would happen if I was
the one teaching right now in this
circumstance,” Robisch said. “I
don’t think any of us were ready
for (classes) to end, especially
the way that ended. But it’s not
over. That’s the one thing that I
think we all need to recognize
and look at.”
Moje
echoed
Robisch’s
statement,
noting
that
while
completing
practicum
and
student-teaching online is not
ideal, teachers across the country
are all in the same situation. She
said this is a learning opportunity
for Education students to think
about their future practice as
teachers.
“We believe in the power of
face-to-face
clinical
practice,
so this is not our first choice,”
Moje said. “But we are doing our
very best work to ensure that
our interns and student teachers
are getting the preparation they
need.”
Reporter Alec Cohen can be
reached at cohenale@umich.edu
ALEC COHEN
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ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The 2020 Stamps School in-person exhibition might have canceled, but that didn’t stop staff photographer Alexandria Pompei from finishing her Inte-
grative Project from home Thursday.
Education students express
concern over schools closing
K-12 closures, switch to online learning throughout state causes
changes in teaching curriculum, in-person classroom internships