Preschool teacher preparation options offered

The Warner School now offers Early Childhood program options designed to prepare both advancing and new teachers to offer deeper educational experiences for children in a new age band, from birth through grade 2. Warner faculty look forward to helping teachers develop enhanced skills to work with young children's unique needs during these critical, formative years.

The new programs, combined with other revised curricula in Childhood (grades 1-6), Middle Childhood (grades 5-9), and Adolescence replaces the more general Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education curriculum at the Warner Graduate School of Education. The state of New York approved the programs in the summer of 2001 as part of a statewide re-certification process meant to ensure that all teacher preparation programs produce teachers whose students could meet state standards.

These master's degree programs, leading to New York State initial teaching certification, require between 30 and 57 credit hours of study, depending upon prior coursework and classroom experience. They can be completed in as little as a year of full-time study or two years of part-time attendance. Teachers can select from several variations of a "basic" program designed to lead to initial and professional certifications and inclusion options that lead to those certifications plus provide special preparation to teach students with disabilities.

Teachers who plan to work with children with disabilities in early childhood settings take additional courses in early intervention and teaching in inclusive settings. They also participate in field placements in both inclusive pre-school and elementary school environments.

By adding 12 to 18 more credit hours, teachers who complete basic programs can later extend their original certifications to include specialized areas like teaching students with disabilities, teaching literacy, or obtain childhood-level certification that qualifies them to work with children through grade 6.

All programs preparing new teachers include a required pedagogical core with courses in Teaching, Curriculum and Change, Topics in Teaching and Schooling, Child Development and Learning in Context, and Race, Class, Gender and Disability in American Education. Two literacy instruction methods courses are also required in all the options. Students take a variety of courses that prepare them to specialize in areas like cognitive development, integrating curriculum, and the theory and practice of teaching mathematics. The makeup of field-based courses reflects each student's unique teaching plans.