USD School of Education Reports Successful Initiatives at Bush Milestone Meeting
In 2009, the School of Education received funding from the Bush Foundation of Minnesota to improve teacher practice by developing the USD Year-long Teacher Residency program. The school has since extended its efforts in promoting teacher quality by re-designing its teacher preparation program to promote diversity, encourage the use of technology, and increase engagement with local schools.
With one year of grant funding remaining, members in attendance reflected on successes such as the School of Education’s Tech for Education Training (TET) 200 initiative at Jolley Elementary, which enables first-year education students to lead interactive STEM lessons at the elementary school.
“The goal of the course is to help teacher candidates not only become more comfortable and adept using technologies, but to do so while engaging children in STEM learning experiences, which provides a very authentic learning environment for these future teachers,” said Daniel Mourlam, Ed.D., who teaches the TET 200 course. “This has truly been an exciting partnership with Jolley Elementary that I hope will continue in the years to come.”
In the upcoming months, the School of Education will continue to implement and refine efforts like TET 200 with an emphasis on sustainability to ensure that the programs thrive once the final year of grant funding concludes.
