Hi Phyllis!
I just read the comments you left in my blog – I’m unable to email you because the email link tries to make me go through AOL which I don’t use anymore. So I hope that you read this at it and it answers your questions!
I completed the weekend ARC program in May ’04. The program as a whole I enjoyed and I think it prepared me well to be a teacher. I was lucky enough to find a job at a charter school with my Masters degree and the plan that I would complete the program. Teaching while taking the program gave me an interesting perspective.
Friday nights were spent in “Core” – these were mostly educational theory, touchy-feely sort of lectures – I didn’t agree with most of what the people said, BUT they did clear up the state standards for teachers, and most of the alphabet soup that is involved in teaching (IEP, PPT, etc) The saturday classes were mostly your subject area (mine was general science / biology, even though my background is chemistry, I did this because I teach gen. sci) This class was SO AWESOME. I had two excellent teachers. It was a lot of hands-on, practical, useful stuff (I could try out the things I learned there immediately). We also had to practice teaching quite a bit. I met a nice group of people and have two binders FULL of great ideas.
The program was definetly intense. Tiring too, after working full time and prepping for school – to have homework and things. I had 2 papers to write for core (3 – 5 pages, really not bad, and if you didn’t pass you were allowed to rewrite). I felt taken care of and made aware of due dates, tests, fees, etc. Good luck!
