Secondary Education

William Jewell teacher education challenges students to go beyond their own learning experience to understand how to teach every learner. William Jewell College has been certifying teachers for the State of Missouri since 1914 and has held membership in the American Association of College of Teacher Education (AACTE) since 1959. Our program is accredited by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Why choose secondary education at Jewell?

William Jewell secondary education prepares you to reach, teach and understand every learner in your classroom. Strong content preparation through a major in your content field provides depth of knowledge about and the ability to conduct research in your subject. Your double major in secondary education cultivates your understanding of how adolescents grow and how to teach and assess to promote that development. More information on course work and our extensive field experiences can be found in the Jewell Teacher Education Handbook.

 

Fieldwork and Full Year of Student Teaching

All undergraduate students complete five formal fieldwork experiences, beginning the first semester you declare education as a major, prior to student teaching. These experiences are conducted in a variety of school settings, including urban, suburban and rural. Each of these experiences ensure that you understand how to meet the needs of individuals and groups of students in a variety of instructional environments. Every fieldwork has targeted assignments that promote increasingly complex understanding of how the teaching and learning process works as well as to build increasingly complex teaching skill sets.

Your learning culminates in a full-year student teaching experience in which you experience and practice all teaching responsibilities.  The year spent with one teacher in one school provides the opportunity to become a member of a faculty and profession learning community.  This extended period of time affords you the time to collaborate in depth, know each student as an individual, and to influence the learning of every adolescent in your classes.

We work with many schools in the Kansas City region and will select a student teaching placement in which you will have the best experience possible. You may request an urban, rural or suburban student teaching placement.

 

What Will I Learn?

As a Jewell teacher education student you will learn to:

  • Implement research based teaching practices that produce disciplinary literacy and thinking, engagement, and the ability to apply learning to the real world.
  • Understand developmentally appropriate practice and differentiated instruction and use them to meet the needs of increasingly diverse high school populations.
  • Structure opportunities for students to think critically and challenge themselves.
  • Conduct ongoing assessment and corrective literacy lessons for struggling readers.
  • Design meaningful assessments that inform instruction and are connected to curriculum standards.
  • Utilize classroom management techniques to model and promote healthy behaviors and relationships.
  • Communicate and collaborate with others as a professional in educational settings.
  • Reflect on your teaching to continuously improve your practice, increase student learning, and serve as a school leader. 

Our Teacher Education Programs

ELEMENTARY (Grades 1-6)

SECONDARY (Grades 9-12) Secondary education majors double major in their content field and complete additional certification course work. *Teacher education students in the sciences, math or speech/theatre have the option to minor in their content area and complete certification course work.

  • Biology*
  • Chemistry*
  • English
  • Mathematics*
  • Physics*
  • Social Studies
  • Speech and Theatre (Communication)*

ALL LEVELS (Grades K-12):

  • Spanish
  • Choral Music
  • Instrumental Music

A closer look

  • Where our students are teaching

    Jewell graduates well prepared teachers who stay in the profession. Our recent graduates teach in:

    • over 30 Kansas City area school districts;
    • multiple Charter and private schools;
    • St. Louis; and
    • rural and suburban school districts throughout Missouri and Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Belgium and Albania. 

    Jewell graduates have taught in Japan, Korea, Afghanistan and Tonga, and multiple graduates teach while serving in the Peace Corps, Teach for America and City Year. Others have earned the prestigious MU Teaching Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship and James Madison Fellowship.

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  • Teaching in Missouri and Beyond – Teacher Certification

    Upon successful completion of your teacher education program and all certification requirements, William Jewell College will recommend you for an Initial Professional Certificate in your grade level and content field.

    If you do not plan to teach in Missouri, you must still meet all Missouri requirements. Other states predicate their certification on the teacher education candidate having completed an approved teacher education program in the state where they did teacher education.

    Missouri requirements match well with other states’ requirements so that our graduates have no problems getting certified to teach in other states (although an additional 1-2 courses or a different exit test may be required by other states). The William Jewell College teacher certification officer will help you interpret other states’ certification procedures.

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  • Certification Testing and Results

    Entry and exit tests are required by the State of Missouri for all teacher education students. The current teacher education requirements can be found in the Jewell Teacher Education Policies and Procedures Manual on the College Intranet. Ask your Education advisor for additional information.

    The testing results of Jewell’s teacher education program must be reported to the federal government under Title II of the Higher Education Act. View our current Title II results.

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