Careers in Education, a multi-course pathway covering the education system, psychology of education and teaching standards, will launch next year.

Part of Northwood’s Career Technical Education program, the two course progression will be the first of its kind to be offered in IUSD. Careers in Education 1 will run in both semesters focusing on big-picture career opportunities and different teaching philosophies. In Careers in Education 2, students will participate in a seminar-like structure to apply teaching skills in real-world settings like tutoring programs and K-12 schools. According to history teacher Greg Guy, who is building the curriculum for the course, there is an option for students to earn college credit as well as hope for a third course to be added that furthers students’ real-life practice and skills.

“The nature of this course is perfect because for any topic, you learn by doing and participating in the industry,” Guy said. “Part of the game for potential educators is identifying problems and fixing them, so that’s what I’m hoping to bring to students and this class.”

The idea for this course originated with administration, who wanted to help students tackle education by looking at different teaching methods and breaking down the industry. According to Guy, the course has enough students who indicated interest to run, but they hope to recruit more students at Elective Expo next month.

“I’m honestly just really excited about digging deeper into what it means to be a good teacher and being able to observe other teachers,” peer tutor junior Norah Wang said. “I want to see how they differ from each other and what parts I can take from them to make me hopefully a better teacher when I am one, one day.”

While the course is designed for students looking at careers in counseling, administration or teaching, Guy says the course still teaches valuable professional skills like learning how to communicate effectively and how to explain a concept to someone. Students interested in taking Careers in Education next year can reach out to Guy at [email protected] or sign up for it on their requestor.

“I really hope for students that this class makes them better students,” Guy said. “If you’re planning and being reflective of how to teach and how to educate, the ability to then kind of look behind the curtain and know what your teacher’s actually asking me to do here, it can be really powerful for their learning.”