Friends’ School is fortunate to offer a unique teacher preparation program to aspiring teachers by providing them with practical classroom teaching experience and coursework that will enable them to attain a Colorado teaching license as well as a Master’s degree in education. This highly regarded program places teachers in public and private schools throughout Boulder County each year.

Hands-On Classroom Teaching Experience
Teacher candidates spend four days each week for one school year in either an elementary or preschool, working alongside a mentor teacher in a co-teaching role. As teacher candidates move through the school year, they gradually assume more teaching responsibility, develop more sophisticated methods for dealing with the day-by-day challenges of working with young children, and demonstrate proficiency on state-mandated performance-based assessments. There is a support team in place for the teacher candidate that includes an advisor, the mentor teacher, and the co-director, who provide feedback and advice throughout the program year.

Program Coursework
Coursework begins in August with an orientation week and continues every Friday throughout the school year. The all-day seminars are a blend of presentation, discussion, activity, and dialogue, and aim to present and model best instructional practices. This style intentionally creates opportunities for personal learning and collegial dialogue that reinforce the rich experiences had by teacher candidates in the classroom. The courses are taught by the program co-directors, university professors, support personnel at the district level, and master teachers from both private and public schools.

Colorado Teaching License
Teacher candidates are offered a State Licensure (Certification) Program in either Elementary Education or Early Childhood Education through the Friends’ School Teacher Preparation Program and its partnership with the Colorado Department of Education and the University of Colorado Denver. Teacher candidates receive credit for their full-time work in the classroom and for over 225 hours of coursework. The license enables graduates of the teacher preparation program to teach in pre-K to 3rd (early childhood) or K to 6th (elementary) public or private schools in Colorado.

Master’s Degree
Participants in the preparation program may choose to complete a Master’s in Educational Psychology through our partnership with the University of Colorado Denver. Teacher candidates in the Master’s program receive eighteen hours of graduate credit for their classroom teaching experience and coursework completed during their program year. The remaining eighteen credits are generally taken over the summer and following year.