Why Teach
The University of North Dakota is dedicated to addressing the teacher shortage across our region. To increase teacher recruitment, the College of Education and Human Development created a module to help students learn about education and dispel common misconceptions. This information will spark important conversations and build interest in the teaching profession.
Why Teach, North Dakota Module
"Why Teach" is a free, online, and fully autonomous learning module designed to promote teaching professions to students thinking about future careers. It works within the FACS curriculum and as independent career training. The learning module is comprised of eight topics. Each topic takes about 20-30 minutes to complete and incorporates interactive multimedia (videos, scenarios, audio, drag-and-drop activities, etc.) to bring content to life.
- Topic 1: Orientation to the Module & Introductory Concepts
- Topic 2: Realities and Misconceptions
- Topic 3: What Does Good Teaching Look Like?
- Topic 4: A Day in the Life of a Teacher
- Topic 5: Becoming a Teacher - Skills and Challenges
- Topic 6: Becoming a Teacher - Elementary/Secondary Pathways
- Topic 7: Becoming a Teacher - Training and Degrees
- Topic 8: Looking to the Future
- Clearly and positively inform the user about the range of teaching professions and Why they should become Teachers.
- Set out a clear path for beginning a teacher preparation major at North Dakota colleges and universities.
Students interact with the different modalities to better reach these goals and understand the realities of teaching professions. Image below is an example of an interactive scenario from Topic 7: Becoming a Teacher - Training and Degrees.
The primary audience of the module includes any high school or college student who is:
- Interested in learning about teaching careers
- Exploring career paths
This content may be especially helpful as supplemental materials in Introduction to Education and other teaching career courses.
Why Teach was designed to fit standards with FACS or other career courses.
FACS Standards
- Analyze career paths within education (4.1)
- Communicate education and early childhood knowledge and skills an analyze variety of curriculum and instructional models (4.2)
- Explore opportunities for continuing training (4.6)
Teacher Guide
Review the teacher guide before beginning the module. This guide provides specific and in-depth instructions for implementation, as well as advice for troubleshooting. It also provides activities and ideas for how to expand Why Teach content into classroom discussion and/or work.
The Young Leaders booklet is designed to inspire young students to explore teaching as a potential career while building essential academic, career, and personal/social skills. The booklet is comprised of 15 activities and is intended for students in grades 3-5. The activities in the student booklet can be completed in sequence or out of sequence, and the teacher guide includes strategies to teach or extend each lesson. The activity book inspires thoughtful conversation and reflection about the amazing work of teachers and how students can be future leaders in every community.
Like Why Teach, the Young Leaders booklet was developed with North Dakota learning standards in mind. It addresses several North Dakota Elementary Career Development Standards, further highlighted in the teacher guide.
I enjoyed getting to see other North Dakota teachers and hear their perspectives. This course was fun and brought many things to my attention that I may not have thought about before.Aubrey, Grade 11
Contact
- katie.stermer@UND.edu
-
Education Building
Grand Forks ND 58202-7189