Community Bulletin
For more than 120 years, the Elkins hospital now known as Davis Medical Center has been where the Potomac Highlands turns for care. Today that includes expert kidney care close to home — sparing many patients a drive out of the region. Read more →
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ELKINS – Davis & Elkins College has been awarded a grant from the West Virginia Department of Education to enhance the teacher preparation program. The funds provide for an initiative to apply the concepts and strategies of co-teaching to the student teaching experience.
Co-teaching in student teaching is the practice of pairing a D&E student teacher with a classroom teacher to share the responsibilities of planning, instructing and assessing students. In this setting, the teachers are considered equally responsible and accountable for the classroom.
D&E Associate Professor of Education Dr. Jennifer Tesar, who serves as student teacher college supervisor, explained that the goal of implementing the co-teaching model into student teaching is to provide ongoing support for the D&E student teacher, ongoing professional development for the classroom teacher, and to positively impact the academic achievement of learners. This co-teaching model of student teaching allows increased opportunities for children to get help when and how they need it, provides greater student participation and engagement, and ultimately increases student achievement.
D&E student teachers were placed in mentor teachers’ classrooms in Randolph and Tucker County schools in fall 2019 to complete a year-long student teaching “residency.” The mentor teacher and student teacher attended training workshops provided by D&E’s Teacher Education program to learn how to incorporate co-planning strategies into student teaching. The workshops focused on relationship building, communication and collaboration, and research findings on co-teaching. In addition, the workshops included ways to incorporate co-teaching and co-planning strategies into the student teaching experiences.
D&E student teachers working in area public school classrooms during the spring semester are Jonna Burnside, Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School; Michael Holstein, Third Ward Elementary School; Liz Liptrap, Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School; Rhetta Persinger, Third Ward Elementary School; Hannah Shiflett, Midland Elementary School; and Skylee Watson, Midland Elementary School. In addition, Leneette Fincham is working as a teacher in residence at George Ward Elementary School.
