AUBURN/RADFORD UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP
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AUBURN
ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL
McCONNELL LIBRARY
In the fall of 1997 educators from Radford University and Bethel/Riner Elementary Schools began to talk about establishing a partnership between the university and both schools. The faculty and administration at Bethel and Riner, which were already slated to be consolidated into one school to be called Auburn Elementary, decided to take approximately twenty student teachers during that first year. The university benefited from this partnership by having one location to supervise interns and by having a relatively stable group of teachers to work with during the school year. The school benefited from this partnership in a number of ways also. We were able to effectively use the interns in the classroom thus reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and by giving us an excellent pool of candidates to draw from when we were filling vacancies in the spring. The partnership has continued to grow and we have been extremely pleased with our progress. We now have a strong advisory board to help guide the program and to provide vision for our efforts.
We have a year-long program in which the interns block in the fall at Auburn and then student teach in the spring. University classes are taught at Auburn Elementary School and often our classroom teachers are asked to help teach specific classes and to consult when appropriate. We present at national conferences, share research and literature, and work together to purchase some of the most current technology which can be used in the classroom. Working as a true partnership, we have created a unique program which has helped us to create a strong and well-prepared group of educators who are now entering the teaching profession. We hold the firm belief that preparing the next generation of teachers to replace us when we leave the profession is one of the most important responsibilities that we have as educators. We have benefited directly from this preparation by hiring five graduates who are now excellent teachers at Auburn.
