Rewriting Field-Based Literacy Practicum Experiences

High-quality, field-based practicum experiences provide learning opportunities foundational to future teachers' pedagogy that coursework alone cannot replicate. However, access to these field-based placements for preservice teachers can be limited at times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter explores how one instructor of an intermediate literacy course, which carries a 20-hour field-based practicum requirement, rewrote a traditional field-based literacy experience to design a virtual practicum experience. Following a review of the literature, this chapter is divided into three key parts: (1) design elements of a virtual literacy practicum, (2) preservice teacher perceptions of a virtual literacy practicum, and (3) comparisons of preservice teachers' experiences in a traditional in-person literacy practicum to a virtual literacy practicum. Finally, suggestions for re-writing traditional field-based literary practicum experiences will be provided.

Math Anxiety in Math Methods Courses

Many elements contribute to pre-service teachers' experiences in learning to teach mathematics. The transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has forced educators to challenge traditional math instruction. This chapter presents three major contributing elements in pre-service teacher preparation to foster creativity as a central component and an inevitable outcome of learning to teach mathematics with particular applications to online learning settings. The first section discusses learning to teach math as a creative activity. Some concrete instructional strategies are offered that promote dialogue-rich learning environments. The second section reviews current trends in learning to teach math. The author posits pre-service teachers who have suffered traumatic experiences in learning mathematics must first acquire tools for clearing math anxiety and fear. The third section is a call to action to encourage teachers to participate in and construct learning communities to teach mathematics including the use of instructional technology to support online instruction.

Teachers’ Time Use and Affect Before and After COVID-19 School Closures

Several large-scale survey efforts have attempted to understand teachers’ experiences in the early months of the pandemic. Our study complements this literature by providing direct evidence of teachers’ work prior to and after the onset of COVID-19. We leverage unique longitudinal time use and affect data on 131 teachers from one district across the 2019–2020 school year. Specifically, we provide a full accounting of teachers’ instructional activities, their reports of their positive affect and negative affect while engaged in these activities, and the extent to which teachers’ work experiences changed post-COVID. Our results suggest a large reduction in teachers’ daily instructional minutes, which were replaced with increased planning, paperwork, and interactions with colleagues and parents. Teachers’ overall positive and negative affect did not change post-COVID. But teachers’ affective responses to specific work activities did. Post-COVID, we saw increases in teachers’ positive affect when with students.

Completing Student-Teaching Internships Online

Distance-based learning has become one of the common alternative learning options. Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many academic programmes, including programmes with internship requirements, have switched their teaching and learning strategies from on-campus learning to online platforms. This study aims to understand the experiences and sense-making processes of student-teachers who have completed their student-teaching internships online during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the feedback, experiences, and sense-making processes of this group of student-teachers, it is important to collect first-hand sharing. More importantly, the trend of distance learning-based student-teaching internships will be developed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study will serve as one of the first reports about student-teachers' experiences.