STRUCTURE

MUSE is a program in the Graduate School of Education. The MUSE Master's and Credential Program is a two-year program that prepares candidates to teach English in middle and high school classrooms to both native speakers of English and second-language learners.

The first year of the program is full-time. Candidates student teach in the mornings or early afternoons and attend graduate classes in the evenings. At the end of the first year, which includes summer, fall and spring semesters, candidates receive a preliminary Single Subject Teaching Credential. This credential certifies them to teach English/Language Arts and English Language Development classes in grades six through twelve in California.

During the second year of the program, candidates have already received their credential and most are teaching full time. To complete their Master of Arts degree, candidates participate in a yearlong MA seminar focused on teacher research. This seminar meets every other week under the guidance of a graduate advisor. During the seminar, candidates learn how to conduct teacher research by defining a question or issue, collecting and analyzing data, and finally writing the results of the research. By May of the second year of the MUSE program candidates graduate having received both their teaching credential and their MA in Education from the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley.

PHILOSOPHY

The MUSE Program is committed to:

* Preparing the Best Teachers Possible for the Students Who Need Them Most

The MUSE program is committed to excellence and equity for all students. We work toward this goal in a variety of ways. Our university classes are aimed at connecting theory to practice and providing candidates with both the tools and dispositions to understand learners, learning processes and diversity both within ourselves and the students we work with at school sites throughout the Bay Area.

* Addressing Issues of Inequity

The MUSE program takes a pro-active stance regarding issues of equity. Within our coursework and student teaching practices, we consciously and deliberately examine and respond to situations that involve prejudice, lack of inclusion, learning differences, single-perspective knowledge and inequitable school structures and school culture. We prepare future teachers to see their students as resources and to develop the dispositions and skills to learn about students, their families and communities and to build on these resources in teaching and learning.

* Promoting a Vision of Teachers as Reflective Professionals

The MUSE program prepares candidates to become reflective professionals who practice intellectually rigorous teaching, engage all students in active learning and accept the moral imperative to educate all students. We undertake this task by supporting candidates' need to develop visions of what is possible and desirable in teaching which will inspire and guide their teaching and their learning to teach. The program engages candidates in a critical examination of their own entering beliefs about teaching and learning and helps them develop powerful images of good practice and strong professional commitment

WRITING PROJECT AFFILIATION

Through our affiliation with the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), the MUSE Program's course work and field experiences emphasize theoretically sound methodology in the teaching of writing that draws on both the resources of the University as well as on the expertise of experienced BAWP educators. Many BAWP teachers work with the program both in the capacity of Cooperating Teacher at the student teaching school sites and as presenters at our university classes. MUSE graduates are also welcomed to continue their own professional development by participating in the state as well as national networks of the Bay Area Writing Project and the National Writing Project.

Program Features

COURSE WORK
University courses provide candidates with a strong theoretical understanding of teaching and learning as well as pedagogical approaches that connect theory and practice.

Courses include:

* Issues in Urban Education
* Language Study for Educators
* Reading in Secondary Schools
* Adolescent Psychology for Teachers
* Integrating Technology in the Classroom
* Approaches in Teaching English as a Second Language
* Methods for Teaching English in the Secondary Schools
* Assessment and Education of Exceptional Pupils in Regular Classes

STUDENT TEACHING
During the first year of the program, candidates student teach in at least two different teaching placements. Student teachers work in 6-12th grade classrooms in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and surrounding urban districts. MUSE candidates are involved in the full range of classroom activities including observing, assisting, team teaching, and lead teaching. They also attend and participate in events in the school as well as in the neighborhoods in which their students live. Student teachers work in schools with populations of students from diverse ethnic, racial, socio-economic and language backgrounds. Although many of these schools are considered "underperforming", MUSE student teachers are paired with experienced urban teachers who have who have themselves learned to be effective teachers in these challenging circumstances. We draw from a pool of talented teachers, including Bay Area Writing Project Teacher Consultants, Strategic Literacy Initiative teachers and from our own MUSE Alumni.

SUPERVISION
A unique aspect of the MUSE Program is the one-on-one support that is given to each of our student teachers. Student teachers are supervised, supported, and coached by their fieldwork supervisor who is also an experienced urban teacher and who meets with them on a weekly basis both at their student teaching sites and at the university. Supervisors provide resources and curricular support and help students to make real connections between the theory and practice of teaching.

MASTER'S DEGREE
During the second year of the program candidates have already received their credential and most are in their first year of full-time teaching. Others are teaching part-time or working with urban youth in out-of-school settings. Throughout this second year of the MUSE Program, students participate in an M.A. seminar focused on the completion of a teacher research project. In the seminar they learn how to conduct teacher research, define a question, gather evidence, analyze their data and write a research paper which is the final requirement for their Masters degree. Through this process, students are supported both by their fellow new teachers as well as by a faculty advisor who meets with them in a seminar group throughout the fall and spring semesters. Most students choose an issue related to their own classroom experiences to research. The research project itself requires that new teachers reflect on their own teaching and learning as well as on the progress of their students. The teacher research paper lays the groundwork for the on-going process of life-long learning that characterizes our most successful teachers. Students graduate with a Master's degree in Education at the end of their second year in the MUSE program.