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Year-Long Student Teaching

Anderson University is the only institution of higher learning in the State of Indiana with a full immersion internship for qualified senior level elementary and secondary teacher candidates. The year-long experience in a school affords a teacher candidate the unique opportunity to be a member of a faculty and professional learning community within their host school, engage in real-life teaching over a longer period of time, gain greater knowledge of school policies and procedures, more time for reflective practice, and experience a more knowledgeable transition to the first year of teaching. Anderson University’s placement rate for the year-long student teachers has been 100% with many of the graduates being hired by the school districts in which they served their year-long internship.

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Shari’s Experience

Year-long student teaching was one of the best decisions I made in my college career. After the first semester, I was so grateful to have the rest of the year to continue learning and gaining more experiences. I felt like I was part of the school staff, rather than just a student teacher, and was accepted as such. I had several more opportunities by being in the school for a whole year, and was able to see how every aspect of the school year was handled (first day, holidays, conferences, grade cards, meetings, discipline, and so much more). Also, the remarks I received from other educators and administration about how much more advanced and experienced the year-long student teachers were compared to the single-semester student teachers gave me a boost in confidence, especially in such a tight and competitive job market. I would recommend every education student to consider the benefits of doing year-long student teaching. I certainly do not regret the experience!

Shari Nihart BA ’10Special education (K-12) teacher in Accra, Ghana