IRELAND
Student Teaching Goes Global
AFRICA SOUTH NEW ZEALAND
During the 2020 spring semester, before international travel was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of University of Wyoming students were deep into the experience of student teaching abroad. UW is a member of the Consortium of Overseas Student Teaching (COST), which allows our pre-service teachers to complete a portion of their student teaching requirement outside of the United States. “Each student teacher has two placements, one in Wyoming or Colorado and one in another country. The student teacher works with both mentor teachers to schedule eight weeks of student teaching over the course of the semester,” says associate professor and UW COST program coordinator, Kate Welsh. “Each placement is a bit different based on the schools, the countries and their respective calendars.” So far, 14 UW students have been able to experience what it is like to teach abroad in countries such as: Australia, Ecuador, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Spain. Unfortunately, three students who were set to begin teaching in the program this spring have been unable to teach abroad due to the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. Two students are currently preparing to participate in the program next fall. Three students who participated in the program last spring shared their experience with us. Learn how their time teaching outside the U.S. has helped to shape their perspective and molded them into better teachers.
8 • Education@UWYO 2020 Edition
KE ISL WAIHE
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