Belmont Abbey College

Before taking any coursework in the Professional Sequence, a student must be accepted into the Elementary Education Teacher License Program.

Prerequisites:

• ED300: Introduction to Education (3 hours)
• ED303: Children’s Literature (3 hours)
• ED305: Introduction to the Exceptional Child (3 hours)
• ED310W: Educational Development and Psychology (3 hours)
• ED399: Diversity in Education (3 hours)

• ED400: Classroom Management (3 hours)
• ED402: Curriculum and Instructional Design (3 hours)
• ED403: Arts Integration (3 hours)
• ED404: Math Foundations for Elementary Teachers (3 hours)

• ED407: Literacy and Assessment (3 hours)
• ED408: Teaching Social Studies in Elementary School (3 hours)
• ED409: Teaching Science in Elementary School (3 hours)
• ED410: Teaching Mathematics in Elementary School (3 hours)

• ED471: Student Teaching Seminar (3 hours)
• ED475: Student Teaching (9 hours)
• Other courses (16-21 hours)

At Belmont Abbey College we believe that being an elementary school teacher is not only a job, but a calling. Our students gain invaluable experience teaching in real classrooms in our local community, which prepares them for their future teaching careers.

Students are required to take a Student Teaching Seminar (three hours) to prepare them for their student teaching experience, followed by nine hours (over three semesters) student teaching at a local school. This in-class experience proves critical to the success of our students in the classroom and in their career as a whole.

Gaston County Schools and surrounding districts serve students from a variety of backgrounds and socioeconomic circumstances. Our teacher candidates participate in field experiences across different school settings before deciding on the student teaching location that calls to them academically, socially and emotionally.

Each instructor in our teacher preparation program comes to higher education following a successful journey in classrooms where they honed their skills of teaching and learning. We believe that all field experience should be supervised by full-time faculty who know students very well, having already spent extensive time with them in our Abbey classrooms and in advising settings.

We take our instructor-student relationships seriously and value all teacher candidates as we help them prepare for a satisfying lifetime career in public and/or private school classrooms.

At Belmont Abbey College, we believe in continual formative assessment of both students and our program. Our doors are open for teacher candidates to be part of the planning of teaching and learning in our classrooms and field opportunities. We believe preparation of teachers is a dynamic process, ever changing as research and student needs are considered.