The first students of the innovative Roaring Fork Teacher Education Project will graduate this week from the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder.
The one-of-a-kind program houses future teachers in the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, Colo., where they live together and perform community service in addition to teaching. By being part of the community the students learn about the lives of their students outside of the classroom, according to Liz Meador, co-director of the Roaring Fork project.
The seven students, who already hold bachelor's or master's degrees, are now eligible to receive a professional license from the state to teach middle or high school.
"Our students are able to work with families and are able to understand issues that families are struggling with on a daily basis, whether it's poverty, language barriers, recent immigration problems or having handicapped children in the family," she said.
"Once these students begin to see how diverse the issues are that families face in the Roaring Fork Valley they tend to have more compassion and more understanding for the kids they work with in the classroom."
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the program live for two semesters in a 12-bedroom rooming house in Woody Creek, about 10 miles west of Aspen. They eat, sleep and do all of their course work together.
Meador and co-director Daniel Liston, a CU-Boulder professor of education, say this communal living prompts students to think about seeing their classrooms as a community. A third semester is spent taking regular courses at CU-Boulder.
Roaring Fork students work with students in kindergarten through 12th grade in both the Roaring Fork and the Aspen school districts. The students also work with a variety of community service agencies, including a shelter for victims of domestic violence and a program that teaches life skills to developmentally disabled adults. Several students tutor families who are learning English as a second language.
Meador says this makes the students better teachers because they have experiences that help them see the children they are teaching as whole people.
Getting student teachers out of the classroom and into the community benefits the teachers as well as the community, according to Meador. When teachers have a better understanding of the daily challenges of their students, they can teach more effectively in the classroom.
"We know that students who are connected with their teachers do well in school," Meador said. "They have a sense of belonging in the classroom and they are invested in their education in a significant way. So we feel that this program will allow teachers to deal with students on a level that leads to improved education in the community, and that affects the person on the street, because the better job we do in the schools the stronger our communities."
The Roaring Fork Teacher Education Project immerses aspiring teachers into CU's Total Learning Environment, according to Liston. Talking educational theories over breakfast before student teaching and volunteering in the community gives CU students a better understanding of the world around them and the impact they can make as teachers in it, he said.
The program is a partnership between the CU-Boulder School of Education, the Aspen and Roaring Fork Valley school districts and the private nonprofit Aspen Educational Research Foundation.
For more information or to apply for admission contact Professor Daniel Liston in the CU-Boulder School of Education at (303) 492-8934.