On Saturday, March 28, Belmont’s School of Education held a Virtual Selection Day event for applicants to the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Residency Program. Candidates heard from Belmont faculty and participated in group interviews with Belmont faculty and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) school and district administrators.
Belmont’s program is set up like a medical residency model where candidates are able to work with qualified mentor teachers for a full year and receive feedback. After a full year in the classroom with mentor teachers, completion of coursework and support from the University, they are ready to be the teacher of record on Day 1.
“It’s an amazing program that gives people with an undergraduate degree in any subject area a chance to become a teacher and receive a Masters in Education,” explained Program Director Dr. Darcie Finch.
Belmont’s residency program partners with the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) and a representative of NCTR attended the virtual selection day event. Wayne Lewis, dean and professor in the School of Education, said the representative was so impressed with the event that she asked Belmont to participate in a virtual meeting of residency programs across the country to talk about planning and execution of the event.
Finch shared their story on Friday, April 17. Lewis said when Belmont made the decision to shift courses and programming online this semester, Finch immediately began planning for moving the traditionally on-campus Selection Day to a virtual platform.
“Dr. Finch provides outstanding leadership for our Urban Teacher Residency Program. School of Education faculty and MNPS administrators didn’t miss a beat and flawlessly facilitated online discussions and group interviews with our residency candidates,” he said. “Feedback from our candidates has been very positive.”
