Brevard College is committed to an experiential liberal arts education that encourages personal growth and inspires artistic, intellectual and social action. Brevard College's experiential education origins can be traced back to the first year of the institution and the original school motto, “Labor, Learn, Live.” Brevard’s unique approach to academics through experiential education produces students who are not just prepared to succeed in the workforce, but for a lifetime of self-improvement and higher learning as well.
I think about what my teacher education professors have taught me every day. Teaching has been stressful at times and overwhelming, but I have a good team to reach out to, an educational philosophy rounded in dedication to student learning and backed with research, and a deep compassion for my students. I love what I do.
With its strong liberal arts focus, the Brevard College Teacher Education program offers several special characteristics that distinguish it from other teacher education programs. The Teacher Education Program is housed in Brevard College's Experiential Education Division, and the Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education major collaborates in providing experiential learning to candidates. WLE 220, "Theory and Practice of Experiential Education" is a required course for all elementary and high school licensure areas. The coursework in the Teacher Education Program provides modeling of best practices and features a strong experiential base that includes classroom observation and experiences attached to numerous courses.
The program emphasizes reflection and active learning; students apply the theory they have learned in their college classrooms to help facilitate their activities in the public schools. Partnering school systems provide valuable field experience for teacher education students. All teacher education students are required as early as their freshman year to observe and complete practicums in diverse public school and after school educational settings and to participate in professional learning communities with in-service teachers and educational leaders in the region.
*The tuition listed below includes room and board.
Agriculture 9-12 Art K-12 Early Childhood Education Birth-K Elementary Education K-6 English 9-12 Health K-12 Mathematics 9-12 Music K-12 Science 9-12 Social Studies 9-12 Theatre K-12
Program Overview
Here is what you will experience in the Brevard College Teacher Licensure Program.
EDU 205: 21st Teacher and Learner uses service learning to place you in diverse settings, such as Schenck Job Corps, Rise and Shine Freedom Schools, Boys and Girls Club, and El Centro Homework Club to help you learn and appreciate the diversity of your future students.
Field Work gives you a glimpse of innovative school sites such as Expeditionary Learning Schools and Early College. Classes such as Education Psychology help you understand the theory behind effective classroom management. Observations in Special Education and Inclusion classes in our community schools show you how to differentiate instruction for your future students.
EDU 305: Facilitation of Instruction teaches lesson and unit planning and EDU 304: Teaching in the Digital Age allows you to be Google Certified and teaches you how to use technology to engage, instruct and assess future students. The Diversity Forum in EDU 303: Diverse and Exceptional Learners brings you in community with experts in autism and dyslexia, and with LGBTQ+ high school students and homeless students who speak of their educational needs.
In your student teaching, you will work side by side with faculty mentors in your content area and partnering school teachers, and advisors who walk the path with you from student to teacher with formative assessments, narrative feedback and plenty of opportunities to practice your skills and dispositions before your graduate.
Program Hallmarks
In Brevard's Teacher Licensure Program, you will begin learning and teaching and applying your knowledge from your first class. In EDU 205: 21st Century Teacher and Learner, students study growth mindset theory and apply it through mentoring students in community schools and after-school programs.
In sophomore and junior classes, you will learn content knowledge, whether it be playing an instrument or designing science projects. At Brevard, you don't just study elementary science—you learn it by tracking Monarch butterflies. You don't just memorize reading comprehension theory—you apply it by working as a literacy tutor for struggling readers.
In order to prepare all teacher candidates to welcome a diverse population of students into their future classrooms and appreciate the richness that diversity brings to an educational setting, Brevard College's Teacher Education hosts an annual diversity forum, featuring guest presenters and mini-workshops on a variety of teaching challenges and opportunities.
Topics include an "Understanding Friends" workshop on Autism, a presentation on Dyslexia and a workshop on teaching strategies for English learners, as well as guest panels of LGBTQ+ high school students and presentations by local community organizations on how to support our homeless students and those students living in poverty.
All teacher candidates learn to read and write individualized education plans (IEPs) for hypothetical students and spend time observing inclusion and differentiation in local classrooms with skilled teachers.
Brevard College is one of the smallest teacher education programs in the States and we consider this a good thing. Classes in the junior and senior levels are usually less than 10 students, so our teacher candidates can work closely with their college professors and local school teachers.
All education classes have required field experiences where teacher candidates have opportunities to teach and receive feedback from partnering master teachers and administrators in our local public schools.
Brevard College's Teacher Education Program has an Advisory Council of Teacher Education (ACTE) consisting of college licensure area coordinators and a rotating contingent of local in-service teachers, school administrators, retired community educators and school board members. This Advisory Council meets once a month to discuss assessment issues and policies in order to foster an environment of continual program commitment to excellence and equity in education.
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