A. Early Field Experiences-

All elementary candidates have two pre-student teaching experiences, many of them in their first semester in the College of Education.  These experiences take place in 19 different sites across Metropolitan Detroit, 16 of these sites are public schools.  The other three are the Detroit public Schools (DPS), Children's Museum, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Detroit Science Center.  Across Detroit, schools vary widely in social, cultural and economic diversity, and students are required to document their experiences and reflect upon their varying challenges as they move from one setting to another as pre student teachers and student teachers.  Programs feature classroom assignments at field sites that are an integral part of course work.  Student teaching, internships and clinical assignments at all levels are designed to provide a reality base against which students can measure the validity of pedagogical theory.

Each assignment is a full term (14 weeks) field placement where candidates work with students in their classrooms or at a museum three to four mornings a week.  Secondary students have one semester of pre-student teaching followed by one semester of student teaching.  Secondary students are encouraged to have placements at both middle and secondary schools and experiences in both their teaching major and minor.  Secondary and K-12 programs are structured in similar patterns with emphasis on applying theory to practice in actual school settings.
 

B. Collaboration/Partnerships with K-12 Schools-

Many of the collaborations/partnerships with K-12 schools take place through funded projects that are often institutionalized into the program.  Examples of social studies collaboration include the Urban Agenda and the Detroit Public Schools Summer 2000 Learning Academy.  Four social studies graduate students along with one other graduate student from WSU taught in the Summer 2000 Academy on the campus of Wayne State.  The teacher candidates taught Detroit middle and high school students numerous skills including agenda building, debate, career planning, and computer skills and their use in social studies.

One very beneficial and unique collaboration is with the Detroit Public School's Children's Museum.  One of our adjunct faculty who teaches ELE 6600 holds classes in the museum.  This not only allows students to see and use artifacts during their classes to better understand the teaching of history, but also anthropology and archeology.  The museum also has items which help in the teaching of other social studies disciplines.  In addition, students from around the metropolitan Detroit area not only have an opportunity to see and experience one of the jewels of the Detroit Schools, but the school system gets to see some of our graduate students.

Since 1997, (as mentioned above) in the Fall and Winter semesters, several undergraduate students have field experience placements at the Children's Museum as part of their teacher training.
 

C. Collaboration/Partnerships with Community Organizations-

Collaboration with community organizations can be seen in the class TED 7000, Introductory Masters Seminar, where students are required to complete fifty hours of service with a local community organization.  Students have collaborated with a wide range of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, ACCESS (a local Arab American organization) and the International Institute.  Methods classes have students develop a database of community field trips by contacting institutions that will be useful to them as teachers of social studies.  Present and former students have served on the boards of social activist organizations like the ACLU of Michigan.

D. Collaboration/Partnerships with other post secondary institutions-

Both students and faculty develop informal collaborations and partnerships with other post secondary institutions through national (NCSS) and state (MCSS) conferences, including conferences sponsored by the College.  One example of a partnership is with the International Institute to allow masters students to serve as volunteers to develop curriculum and teach recent immigrants the skills to become American citizens.

Another partnership is seen in the Urban Agenda project, where candidates collaborate with other teachers from post secondary institutions across the globe, including those in other parts of the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

There have also been partnerships with other colleges at Wayne State.  Mentioned above was a partnership with the College of Lifelong Learning which directed the Detroit Public Schools Summer 2000 Learning Academy.  In addition, this fall we are developing a relationship with the Museum of
Anthropology to have a program similar to the one with the Children's Museum.