Pathways to Teaching (P-TEACH)

• Open to 10th – 12th graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall semester every year
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 college credits)

Are you interested in learning more about the world of Early Childhood Education, ages birth-3rd grade? This course provides an overview of the early childhood profession and the philosophical and historical foundations of services to young children and their families. State and national trends, resources and standards for early childhood care and education, professionalism, and code of ethical conduct are examined. Key areas of ECE professional knowledge are introduced: developmental domains and milestones, developmentally appropriate practice, evidence–based practice and intentional teaching, curriculum models, guidance strategies, family and community relationships, diversity and inclusion, and the leadership skills and organizational climate to support quality early care and education work settings.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Spring semester of even years (Spring 2024, Spring 2026, Spring 2028, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Have you ever wondered about how our brains and bodies develop?  This course focuses on the study of human growth, development and ecology from conception to adolescence. The emphasis is on the major theories of child growth and development and the implications of current research findings to better understand child development and how children learn.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall semester of even years (Fall 2024, Fall 2026, Fall 2028, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Would you like to learn how to address children’s social emotional needs and how to create a connected community in your classroom? This course explores and applies classroom strategies to promote social competence, build classroom community and facilitate emotional regulation. An emphasis is on understanding development within group contexts, observing children’s behavior and engaging with families to make decisions about learning.

• Open to 10 – 12th graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall, spring, and summer semesters every year
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Want to see what the profession of teaching looks and feels like while earning college credit?  Work in a classroom, helping a teacher, and gain invaluable experience with students. This field experience and seminar is designed to support your first foray into educator preparation. You will be introduced to the wide array of skills and practices that support working effectively with youth in the context of their local community. Working within the community to support children’s academic and social development requires a disposition of being grounded in the community—the experiences of this seminar, paired with your work at a local school or community organization will help you to develop this grounding. This course requires 60 hours of meeting time with student and instructor per semester for 0.5 credits and completion of a meeting log with specific meeting times and dates.

• Open to 10th – 12th graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall semester of odd years (Fall 2023, Fall 2025, Fall 2027, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Want to learn how to become one of those teachers who creates a strong sense of belonging in their classroom? This course explores the relationship between language, identity, and power in various educational and international contexts. Curriculum includes a survey of race, ethnicity,  gender, media, criminal justice, and the creation of safe, engaging  and inclusive spaces for teaching/supporting children. The course considers how legacies of inequality for particular communities are reflected in societal attitudes about languages and language users and subsequent language planning.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Spring semester every school year
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Would you like to learn more about the world of Special Education and the strengths and needs of students with special needs?  This course is designed to provide a basic introduction to special education and the needs of students who have disabilities. It includes introductory material regarding legal and historical foundations of special education, human growth and development, the nature of disabilities, and an introduction to the basic human needs that must be addressed.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Spring semester of odd years (Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2027, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Would you like to use the design thinking process to create lesson plans that engage students with technology? The STEM Methods course is a framework-based class where students will develop a strong understanding of the STEM for All framework, focusing on integration, innovation, essential skills, personalization, adaptation and connection. This framework will support the development of a STEM mindset, and by learning these processes, students will create STEM-aligned lesson plans for any content or grade.  Students will use these skills to plan and carry out their own STEM-aligned lessons.

• Open to 10th – 12th graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall semester of odd years (Fall 2023, Fall 2025, Fall 2027, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Are you interested in evaluating the trustworthiness of different forms of media and creating digital content of your own? In this course, you will learn to effectively use a variety of digital tools and media for your own learning, designing lessons for your students, and sharing content with a professional learning network. If you are interested in any STEM-related field, this class will bolster your teaching skills in this area. This is a survey of technology for: (1) your own learning, informally and in classes; (2) your students’ learning when you become a teacher; and (3) sharing with peers and colleagues. Use tools to address problems of equity, access, and learning needs.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Spring semester of even years (Spring 2024, Spring 2026, Spring 2028, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Do you believe learning should be fun and project-based? Do you like choice, applied learning and human-centered design? In this course, you will learn about maker culture and tools while collaborating with others to creatively solve real-world problems using design thinking. These challenges will prepare you to design engaging and innovative learning experiences. If you are interested in any STEM-related field, this class will bolster your teaching skills in this area.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: offered spring semester every school year
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Ever wonder how authors use children’s literature to teach, inspire, connect, include, and expand children’s worlds? This course explores both classic and contemporary children’s and adolescent literature and media in traditional and digital texts, specifically focusing on developing literary understandings, exploring perspectives and personal responses to literature, and inquiring into trends and issues.

• Open to 10th – 12th Graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Spring semester of even years (Spring 2026, Spring 2028, Spring 2030, etc.)
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

This course is designed to introduce students to human development in ecological settings in particular family, school and community contexts as it occurs across the lifespan, including emotional, physical, and cognitive development, and emphasizes personal adjustment and achievement.

• Open to 9th – 12th graders
• Credit: 0.5 Practical Arts
• Schedule: Fall, spring, and summer semesters every year

Want to explore what the profession of teaching looks and feels like? Work in a classroom, helping a teacher, and gain invaluable experiences with students. Students are eligible to participate in an education specific internship in the P-TEACH pathway of their choice. Internship opportunities are individualized to match the interests of students. Current internship opportunities range from Community Schools, PreK, Elementary, or Secondary, Music, Art, SPED, Speech, Coaches, Project Launch during the summer, etc. This course requires 60 hours of meeting time with student and instructor per semester for 0.5 credits and completion of a meeting log with specific meeting times and dates.

• Open to 12th grade P-Teach students
• Credit: 0.5 Language Arts
• Schedule: Fall semester after school
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Does the idea of reading, writing, and research about teaching-related issues sound interesting? Are you a P-TEACH student? This course provides opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences, with an emphasis on learning how to respond to various rhetorical situations; improving critical thinking, reading, and writing abilities; understanding various writing processes; and gaining a deeper knowledge of language conventions.

• Open to 12th grade P-Teach students
• Credit: 0.5 Language Arts
• Prerequisite: PS3478 English Composition 1
• Schedule: Spring semester after school
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (3 College Credits)

Did you take English Composition 1 in the fall? This class focuses on academic and other types of research-based writing and builds on the work completed in ENGL Comp 1. This class focuses on critical thinking, reading and writing as well as working with primary and secondary source material to produce a variety of research-based essays. There is emphasis on using both print-based and electronic-based information.

• Open to 12th grade P-Teach students
• Credit: 1.0 Mathematics
• Schedule: 1 year course; fall and spring semester after school
• Concurrent Enrollment CU – Denver (4 College Credits)

Would you like to learn how teachers use data in their practices? Take a supported and in depth look at the world of statistics in the context of education. Learn basic statistical concepts, summarizing data, probability concepts, distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing.