All candidates in Furman's Teacher Education Program participate in a site-based interaction with a classroom teacher known as Early Experience. Undergraduate candidates typically participate in Early Experience when they are rising seniors; graduate students participate in Early Experience during a comparable point in their progress through the Teacher Education Program. Early Experience occurs during the first three-four weeks of the K-12 school year. Candidates are referred to as "co-teachers" during Early Experience.
Early Experience provides candidates with an orientation to the community, district, school, and classroom placement that elementary, secondary/foreign language candidates will use as their applied teaching sites during the Senior Block/Practicum, and which music and PE candidates will use as the site for their Teaching Internship. The documents listed below help clarify different aspects of Early Experience:
