Message From the Director
It has been such a pleasure to make connections with the districts we serve. Your voice continues to help shape the program and ensure we serve candidates in a way that allows them to best serve students. Our team has worked tirelessly to continue adding value to the coursework and interactions between SDCOE Designated Subjects Consortium instructors and candidates. We have also been working hard to guarantee a smooth transition for candidates to our new learning management system, Canvas.
Other things to look for in the new year are our regularly scheduled live webinars for program candidates. During these webinars, we plan to provide program information, answer questions, and schedule one-on-one meetings with candidates who would like individual advisement based on their timeline and needs specific to them. Lastly, our incredibly talented credential technician, Calipso Barrera Gomez, will be hosting live, regularly scheduled webinars for credential technicians to provide the latest information and facilitate questions and answers. Look for dates below.
Director, Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation
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Designated Subjects Consortium Advisory Meetings
We have scheduled advisory meetings throughout the year to facilitate opportunities for districts to receive updates, get clarification on requirements, and provide us with feedback that continues to shape how we serve candidates. Our first advisory meeting took place
Nov. 12
. Since it was our first one for the year, it involved mostly sharing information and answering questions. Future advisory meetings will be more interactive.
Advisory meetings are scheduled from 9 to 10 a.m. via
Zoom
on
If you would like for us to include specific topics on the agenda, please
let us know
. This is a great opportunity to connect with other districts around designated subjects.
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Mentor Requirement for CTE, Special Subjects, and Adult Ed Candidates
Beginning this month, the mentor requirements for the program are now embedded in the candidate coursework. To ensure quality and consistent mentorship, all new mentors will be required to participate in an online training. This training is a total of eight hours and can be completed across four weeks. Mentors will have a choice about when they sign up for the course.
The process/requirement for designated subjects mentors is as follows:
- The district/school identifies and assigns a mentor during the program application process.
- The program then sends the mentor a welcome email that includes a link for our new online mentor training and a request for a copy/screenshot of their credential. The mentor should be an experienced teacher (three or more years of teaching) in good standing with a clear credential. Mentor training is mandatory for all new mentors beginning this month.
- Throughout the two years in the program, the candidate and mentor will collaborate to complete observation cycles that will be submitted within the candidate coursework as an assignment. Each observation cycle includes a pre-observation conversation, an observation, and a post-observation conversation. This is designed to promote dialogue between the mentor and the candidate about what to observe, what was observed, and what the areas of strength and growth are moving forward. The cycles look like this:
Early Program Orientation:
- The candidate will provide the mentor name and contact information to the instructor. The candidate will plan future observations with the mentor.
Foundations Course:
- The mentor observes the candidate. Through this observation, they discuss areas of strength and focus.
- Using the identified area of focus, the candidate observes the mentor teaching, or the candidate (preferably with the mentor) observes another teacher who the mentor highly recommends observing. During the observation, the candidate looks for strategies specific to the area of focus.
Emphasis Course:
- Using the previous observation and strategies already implemented to address the area of focus, the candidate once again observes the mentor teaching, or the candidate (preferably with the mentor) observes another teacher who the mentor highly recommends observing. During the observation, the candidate looks for strategies specific to the area of focus.
- The mentor or site administrator observes the candidate and together they discuss areas of strength and areas of focus moving forward beyond the program.
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Credential Technician/Analyst Meetings
Calipso Barrera Gomez, credential technician for the Designated Subjects Consortium, will be hosting three meetings during this school year via
Zoom
. These meetings are designed to answer specific questions you may have and provide updates about the credentialing process for designated subjects. These meetings are scheduled for 10 to 11 a.m. on
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Candidate Advisement
Our team will be hosting monthly candidate advisement meetings/office hours via
Zoom
. The purpose of these meetings is to answer any questions candidates may have about program requirements. These meetings are scheduled from 3 to 3:45 p.m. on the following dates
- Feb. 4
- March 3
- April 7
- May 5
- June 2
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Candidate Handbook
We are excited to announce that we have developed a
candidate handbook
as a guide to help provide an overview of the program, costs, and requirements. This is a working document that we will continue to update and enhance as we hear from the field about needs. We welcome your feedback! The handbook is now available on our
website
.
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Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation
SDCOE’s Designated Subjects Consortium is housed within the
Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation
department. We offer many other programs and services for pre-service teachers as well as fully credentialed teachers. These programs are all online:
- Added authorizations in Special Education
- CSET Preparation (English, math, multiple subject, social science, science. Physical education coming soon)
- Certificate in Inclusive School Practices
- Master Teacher Training
- Teacher induction
- Temporary permit for statutory leave
Follow us on Twitter @sdcoe4educators!
For more information about the services we offer, visit our
website
.
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Get up-to-the-minutes information about what's happening at
SDCOE and in our districts across the county.
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