School Partnerships: Technology Rich Classrooms and the Student Teaching Experience

Abstract

Building upon an established relationship between a college and a local school district, this project formally designated a Partnership School, at which education students conduct field experience. In addition to providing these participating pre-service teachers (students) with a clinically rich experience through closer supervision by and interaction with their faculty supervisor, the project enriched the experience of high school English students by providing appropriate technology in the classroom and integrating it with instruction. The project gave student teachers and educators the ability to collaborate upon and refine lesson planning and delivery, efficiently and effectively meeting the needs required of pre-service student teaching experiences. The study examined three aspects of the project as perceived by the participants: the effectiveness and benefit of using distance observation, the effectiveness and benefit of established technology for completing an edTPA, and the effectiveness and benefit of additional technology for use by the host teachers' classroom in cloud-based applications.