Our program will engage students in innovative courses, experiences and opportunities that will prepare them for teaching in the twenty-first century. Structured field experiences in schools is a key component of this. Opportunities to practice and reflect upon what is learned in our courses in an actual classroom are an essential part of the field experience.

Students will spend a minimum of 150 hours in public school classrooms prior to the student teaching semester. Activities include, but are not limited to: observations in the classroom, planning activities, writing lesson plans, gathering classroom teaching materials, assisting in designing assignments, teaching a mini-lesson, working with small groups of students or tutoring a student, administering a quiz or assisting with recording grades, and grading papers. During this final experience, students will spend 16 continuous weeks in schools. 

North Carolina State University prepares teachers to promote fairness and equal opportunity. Throughout the program, students study major philosophical and historical influences on education and their relevance to current classroom challenges. The program focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of working with students from various cultural, gender, ethnic, language and socio-economic backgrounds.

Ongoing field experiences in schools are supported by experienced cooperating teachers and university supervisors. Cooperating teachers have been chosen based on their ability to model best teaching practices daily in the classroom. Our university supervisors have been classroom teachers and receive training in coaching and mentoring.

The dynamics of the three-way partnership among student, cooperating teacher and university supervisor ultimately promote the growth of each of the partners as professionals. In addition, the partnership positively impacts the learning of the students in the classroom.

To ensure NC State’s students receive the best possible preparation, we have developed strategic partnerships with Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to support teacher preparation. We engage with our partners to discuss partnership and research opportunities and areas for improvement in our collaboration, as well as strengths and areas for improvement of our candidates, graduates and programs.  

In addition, we partner with local community agencies. One specific partnership is with the Hispanic Family Center in Raleigh and Durham. Students tutor children who need extra reading support throughout the semester as a major component of their reading methods course.

During this process, the graduate students are building their expertise in reading instruction while giving hope to families facing multiple challenges.