Creating Win-Win Partnerships and Adding Relevance to Educator Preparation

The authors describe a partnership between two departments, in a school of education that involves educational leadership and curriculum and instruction graduate students sharing their expertise of teaching and learning with student teachers and alternatively certified teacher interns. This project provides graduate students with active participation in delivering workshops to adult learners. The beginning teachers are the participants. Beginning teachers benefit from gaining hands-on experience and research-based instructional strategies to use in their classrooms. Researchers found this activity increased the graduate students' sensitivity to the needs of beginning teachers. Over 1300 student teachers and alternative certification interns and approximately 530 graduate students have participated in the Teaching, Learning, and Service Conference. The conference is organized twice a year, on a Saturday in the fall and on a Saturday in the spring.