Things I Need to Know

I read about four important things that UMF Secondary Education majors should know.

·      I cannot become a teacher unless I have passed the teaching licensing certification process. This includes passing Praxis I and Praxis II tests. Praxis I assess my basic academic skills and Praxis II measure general and subject-specific knowledge and teaching skills. I must pass the Praxis to become a Secondary/ Middle Education major. When registering for Praxis, I could be eligible to have the fee waived. This is available to students who are currently receiving financial aid, are enrolled in an undergraduate/graduate program, are required to take Praxis, and meet income guidelines. There are many places that I can get help and study to pass the Praxis. The Center for human development not only helps you register for Praxis tests; it also has resources that can prepare you for it. The UMF Math Clinic can also help me on the mathematics portion of the Praxis. I can sign up for a tutor, and have regular sessions to help prepare for Praxis.

·      If my major were not already in the Secondary/ Middle Education area, I would have to meet some specific requirements to change my major. Since I am already in a Secondary Education major, this doesn’t apply to me. If I were to change my major from Secondary Education I would still have to apply for a transfer though.

·      I will have to take Practicum because of my major is Secondary Education. Being in a Secondary/Middle Education major is also a requirement to take Practicum. I must also have a GPA of 2.0 or higher. I must pass all of my Praxis I tests, and have completed ENG 100 with a C or better. Furthermore, I must pass EDU 101/ SED101 with a C or better in each class. To apply for Practicum I must meet with my advisor for pre-registration, and get a printout of my approved schedule showing Practicum; my advisor must sign this. Then I must come to the Practicum Party with my signed printout. Kristin Hickey will send me an email about when this party will be. At the paper I will fill out an application form, and do other paperwork, and meet with Beth Evans the Secondary/Middle Education field supervisor. Practicum students may only enroll in one class in addition to the 120credit Practicum course but it must start at 2:30pm or later. It is highly advised by past Practicum students not to take any other classes while taking Practicum. If I have a job (like my work study job), I must work with my employer to make sure that I don’t have anything before 2:30; this goes for weekends too. This is because there are group projects and seminars scheduled at times when I don’t have classes.

·      In Practicum, I am required to have a laptop that meets certain standards. My computer hardware must have a CPU of 2.4 GHz, a RAM of 4GB, a Hard Disk Capacity of 120 GB, an optical drive of 8XDVD, an input of at least one USB 2.0 port, Wireless networking, Video Output, and Sound Input. My computer software must have word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation, digital video editor, audio editor, operating system and PDF creation software. I found out by reading this that my computer already meets all of these requirements!