Intensive urban field placement experiences in Toledo Public Schools and youth serving organizations (50 hours per semester)

• Local, regional, national, and international clinical trips to other urban environments
• Picnics, movie nights, field trips, camping trips, etc.
• Professional development workshops and trainings and program development, implementation, and evaluation experiences
• Regular education courses filled with PCC colleagues (e.g., Introduction to Education, General Studies Writing, Introduction to Educational Technology, etc.)
• Special interest courses related to urban issues (e.g., Tuesday night Seminar, various “Problems in Education” courses, independent studies, etc.)
• Service and fundraising activities
• Leadership opportunities on the PCC Executive Board, ad hoc committees, and Advisory Board
• Annual participation in the Urban Education Conference—to share what members are interested in and have learned

PCC students learn to teach by actually working and teaching in high-need urban schools and working with community organizations that serve youth and families in urban areas, beginning the first few weeks of their first semester at BGSU.  Students gain valuable practical experience while developing close ties to faculty, peers, school administrators and teachers in the field. The living-learning community experience provides a friendly and supportive home in which to live and study.

 

TOLEDO PUBLIC SCHOOLS FIELD EXPERIENCE

Ask most PCC students what the primary reason for joining PCC is, and they will tell you it is the chance to begin meaningful work in classrooms from the very start of their college education. This is certainly true, since PCC students are in Toledo Public Schools beginning the third week of the first semester. These field experiences are intended to be more than observations.

Toledo teachers encourage PCC students to participate in tutoring, working with small groups, team teaching and sometimes presenting entire lessons. PCC students’ “introduction to education” takes place at their comfort level, as they volunteer to take on more and more meaningful challenges, working with urban children in Toledo schools. The first semester finds PCC students in elementary schools, but beginning the second semester, students are placed in assignments aligned with particular areas of licensure. It is easy to see why this is such an important component of PCC, and why every semester PCC students say, “I hate to leave my kids.”