Dear Superintendents,

After a long and tiring campaign, Superintendent Schroeder is taking a few days to rest and recover.

As you lead our schools into the new school year, all of us at the Wyoming Department of Education are working hard to support you and we are cheering for you!  You are the heart and soul of our great schools and we appreciate you.

It is a tremendous honor to serve alongside you as Wyoming goes back to school!

Deputy Superintendent Chad Auer

Vision & Focus

It will always be the purpose of any endeavor that drives its vision and focus. For us, it is the purpose of education that will drive the vision and focus of our K-12 Wyoming education institutions. If teaching thinking is the timeless purpose of education, and if that purpose is constantly clarified and reinforced through each of the content areas (“basket of goods”), then we will see our way more clearly to what it is we’re supposed to accomplish with our students. Classrooms become think tanks, students become fellow thinklings, and our schools become “schools of thought.”

If not, education can quickly become confused with such good things as job-training, such nefarious things as propaganda, such inappropriate things as proselytizing or such well-meaning things as therapy. But education is none of those things, and must never succumb to the pressures to become such.

Education provides a solid foundation for job-training, but it is not the same thing as job-training.  Real education is contrasted by propaganda (and exposes the same) while propaganda is an inept poser. True education improves the heart, but is not simultaneously conflated with the therapeutic model.  The challenge is to stay in our lane, and keep others out of it.  May that ever be our focus as that will ever be education’s vision.

The Primary Priority

Here are our Wyoming Teacher Apprenticeship questions for this week.

Questions: Who will provide the coursework necessary for the apprenticeship program? Will it be through the apprenticeship program, University of Wyoming, the college of the apprentice’s choice or the school district itself? When the apprentice has completed the program do they have a Bachelor’s Degree?

Answers:

  • The apprentice will enroll in a preparation program that leads to Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB) licensure and a Bachelor’s Degree. The WDE and PTSB will verify the programs will meet the requirements before apprentices enroll. Preparation programs will complete an Institutional Recommendation form attesting that the apprentice has completed all program and licensure requirements.
  • The University of Wyoming and Central Wyoming College have some programs that are available and accessible for apprentices – Elementary Education/Special Education dual major, and Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education respectively. Not every content area aligned to a district’s need is currently available at these two institutions, so additional preparation programs may be necessary within the apprenticeship initiative.
  • On-the-job training will be provided by district personnel.

Mark Your Calendars

The Sixth-annual Wyoming Innovations in Learning Conference will be held virtually on November 3-4, 2022. The Innovations Conference is an opportunity for educators to share and explore innovative teaching and learning practices for classrooms and distance learning environments, from kindergarten through higher education. Don’t miss out on this chance to connect with other inventive educators – register here.

Monday memos:

Sincerely,

BSchroederSig

Recent Media