The Center for Teaching and Learning, a Pre-K–8 independent school in Edgecomb, hosted three groups of teacher-interns this fall. CTL is a demonstration school for workshop teaching. For over 30 years, teachers have visited Edgecomb for a week at a time to observe methods developed by CTL’s faculty and adapt them to their own classrooms and schools.

The school welcomes groups of teacher-interns from all over the country and the world. More than 600 teachers from 45 states, Washington, D.C., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, England, India, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Uganda have participated so far in the CTL intern program. This fall, teachers from Ohio, Colorado, and New Jersey attended CTL’s traditional four-day internship week. Additionally, for the fourth year in a row, CTL partnered with Buffalo State University to host pre-service student interns.

Interns come to CTL to observe the teachers launching each day’s work with concise mini-lessons, conferencing with individual students and giving them personalized feedback, and facilitating sharing and group understanding at the close of each class. CTL teachers meet with interns after the classes to reflect and process, to discuss planning and structure, and to help them plan their own classroom routines and procedures to support workshop.

Authentic student experience is forefronted in workshop classrooms, with students spending their class time actively writing, reading, creating experiments and collecting data, applying math skills to problems and challenges that interest them, and exploring artifacts and other historical concepts. 

For families interested in learning more about the school or visiting CTL, please contact Katy Inman, Head of School, at katy@c-t-l.org or 882-9706. For more information, visit the school’s website at http://www.c-t-l.org.