New Teacher Alumni Coaching
Alumni Coaching/Mentoring matches new teachers in high-need schools who are alumni of ACI teacher preparation programs with an ACI teacher education faculty member for weekly, individualized instructional coaching and classroom support. Faculty coaches provide support through face-to-face meetings, email/telephone conversations, weekend study group sessions and classroom visits/observations. Currently, 35 new teachers are participating in this coaching, serving Decatur (with Millikin University), Joliet/Aurora (with the University of St. Francis) and continuing in Waukegan (with Lake Forest College), Calumet City (with Trinity Christian College), Chicago and East Aurora (with North Central College).
The Associated College of Illinois' Alumni Coaching model extends the network of support from the teacher preparation experience as an undergraduate (or graduate) student into the first years of professional teaching. At smaller colleges, clinical faculty often have the unique experience of working with candidates from their very early days in introductory courses during freshmen year, to methods classes during their sophomore and junior years where teaching is dissected in a number of ways. And finally, student teaching during their senior year, which integrates everything they have been taught.
Extending this experience and relationship into the professional classroom not only provides essential instructional coaching for new teachers, but also fosters a critical network of support. Through these coaching experiences, education faculty are better equipped to build and redesign their teacher preparation curricula to better meet the needs of new teachers facing the challenges of high-need schools. This critical feedback loop benefits the next group of candidates and new teachers as well.
For more information about ACI’s Alumni Coaching program, contact Jan Fitzsimmons at (312) 516-2534.