Our Mission:

Spark Teacher Education Institute is committed to the preparation of future teachers as skillful practitioners, leaders and collaborative innovators, able to confront and reconstruct practices and policies in order to create rich environments and equitable opportunities for learning and for living.

The program strives to instill an understanding of self and others in conjunction with the development of skills, knowledge, critical thinking and compassion required for creating an equitable and engaging learning environment for diverse learners.

Spark graduates will be equipped to enter the teaching profession as leaders and innovators who can help to confront and reconstruct practices and policies in order to create equitable and optimal learning environments for all students.

Our Program:

Spark Teacher Education Institute provides an intensive one-year field-based program leading to certification at the elementary, middle school or secondary level. 

As a Spark participant, you will spend a full year interning in a classroom, working side-by-side with a skilled mentor teacher, learning to integrate social justice and equity content into the mainstream curriculum

• Design authentic learning experiences for diverse learners.
• Work to build and manage a democratic community of learners.
• Learn to promote cooperative skills and cooperative learning.
• Foster social responsibility among students.
• Bring the world into the classroom.

One or two days a week you will attend seminars with a diverse cohort of adult learners, led by Spark faculty members who join content area expertise with teaching for social justice:

• Current best practices for your endorsement area.
• Language and literacy development.
• Theories of child and adolescent development.
• Strategies for working with exceptional learners.
• Educational law and policy.
• The social-political-economic context of the educational system.

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