Abstract:
The semester an education major spends student teaching continues to be both vital and significant as it is the culmination of three to four years of intense teacher training. A major becomes a teacher through the course of this semester, and a failure in this stretch of the course results in failure to become a teacher. An education major must put to practice the methods and philosophies he or she has studied, and some are not successful.For these reasons, the traditional student teaching experience has grown obsolete. It no longer prepares education majors to become successful teachers. Schools and students are changing and these changes affect the methods and philosophies that student teachers are supposed to be putting to practice during their semester of student teaching.The traditional experience does not require student teachers to leave the safety of a classroom to explore the boundaries of the school. It does not require the student teacher to interact with students outside of the classroom. And it does not allow a student teacher to prepare academically for the challenge of teaching the variety of subjects offered students today.At this time, there must be change, which is why I chose to participate in the Carmel Clay Student Teaching Internship's pilot year. The purpose of this thesis is to not only explaining the program itself, but to detail some of my experiences as well as convey my retrospective opinions about the program. I hope that through my participation in the program and through my thesis, this program will be improved upon and eventually become the standard rather than the exception for student teaching.
