Secondary Methods Instructors

Thank you for agreeing to teach, mentor, and inspire our secondary education students.  Your knowledge and expertise is so very valuable in helping to prepare Spring Arbor University education candidates for a successful student teaching experience and becoming a newly hired teacher.

This site is developed to help you teach your course and maintain an understanding and uniform practice of the common learning experiences and assignments associated with secondary methods courses. It is understood that individual courses may require some latitude with aspects outlined for secondary methods courses but the main requirements outlined in the podcasts and the instructor notes are not to be altered without discussions taking place between the course instructor and the School of Education Lead Faculty for secondary methods courses.

Student Background

Prior to coming to a secondary methods course your students have been versed in many aspects of of our teacher preparation program.  Your course expands upon these experiences and prepares the secondary student with an understanding of critical knowledge and skills leading to their student teaching.  Therefore, we want you to use your subject area expertise to guide students into a working/performance understanding of the curriculum, resources, and best practices (instructional and assessment) they are to develop and use both in your class and in their student teaching.  Many of the assignments we require of methods students have a direct link to assignments students will expand upon in their final education course work and student teaching.  Every secondary teacher candidate must take EDU 425, a secondary literacy course that has students take the unit plan they created in their methods course and apply literacy principles to it. In addition, your students will soon take EDU 429, a capstone course that formalizes student understanding and practice of instructional practices, assessment, and classroom management.  By helping your students to develop their understanding and skills in your methods course you are preparing them for a successful completion of their teacher education program.  Our goal for all student teachers is to not only successfully complete their experience, but become “the candidate of choice” in a job interview. In addition, the School of Education guarantees newly hired SAU teachers through the Spring Arbor Promise.  Preparation for these high standard begins well in advance of the student teaching semester and your expertise and instruction to our students really does matter.

Main Components and Experiences For All Secondary Methods Courses

Additionally, the School of Education depends on secondary methods instructors to collect specific documents required for tracking education candidate’s progress.  These include:

All forms are to be turned in to the School of Education directly at the end of the course.

Secondary Methods Instructor

Additional forms or activities that can be used in secondary methods courses can be found in the secondary methods instructor notes, accompany training PowerPoint presentation and podcasts.

Please contact the Secondary Methods Lead Faculty for secondary methods with any questions.