College of Staten Island The City University of New York
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Education Department Frequently Asked Questions General Questions about the Education Department Who is my Program Coordinator?What is the Department’s Conceptual Framework?
Undergraduate Adolescence Program
Student Teaching, Special Education Practica, and Internships What is the difference between student teaching and a practicum?
Program Portfolios and Key Assignments
Tk20 Please note: Most questions about using Tk20 can be answered through the Tk20 Student Guide. Do all education students have to use Tk20? How much does my Tk20 account cost, and how long is it active? When do I have to create a Tk20 account by? How does Tk20 help me as a student? How do I submit a Key Assignment through Tk20? How do I resend a Key Assignment if I made a mistake the first time? There are no pending tasks in my account. How do I submit a key assignment without them?
Teacher Certification and NYS Teacher Certification Exams What is the difference between Initial and Professional certification? How do I apply for certification? What are the New York State Teacher Certification Exams?
Graduation Requirements and Commencement How do I apply for graduation? What do I need to know and do for the graduation commencement ceremony? How do I get a cap and gown for commencement?
CIX Email Can I forward CIX email to another email account? More questions about CIX email?
More Questions? Do you have a question that is not answered here? General Questions about the Education Department What is the Department’s Conceptual Framework? Student Teaching, Special Education Practica, and Internships What is the difference between student teaching and a practicum?
Program Portfolios and Key Assignments What is a Key Assignment? The Education Department also uses Key Assignments as a snap-shot of student performance in that course. When viewing the Key Assignments for all students from various courses and programs, the Department can monitor how well we are serving our students. What is a program portfolio? CSI uses program portfolios for two reasons. First, we use them to help bring the various education courses you take into a cohesive whole. Education programs, of course, are not a smattering of random courses. By having students create portfolios, we hope to help you see how they all come together to be greater than the sum of their parts. Second, we monitor and assess program portfolios to ensure both that students are meeting all goals of the department’s Conceptual Framework and relevant standards (e.g., INTASC or NBPTS) and that the students are demonstrating the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of professional teachers. You can learn more about program portfolios here. I created a program portfolio while I was an undergraduate at CSI. Now I am a CSI graduate student, do I need to create another program portfolio?
Frequently Asked Questions about Tk20 Do all education students have to use Tk20? How much does my Tk20 account cost, and how long is it active? How do I pay for Tk20? When do I have to create a Tk20 account by? How does Tk20 help me as a student?
There are a few of the things that the Tk20 software is meant to address. First, it helps organize students’ key assignments and their portfolio. Key assignments are those exhibits (and concomitant reflections) from courses that are used by those who create portfolios to populate their portfolios. Those who are not in portfolio-creating programs must still submit key assignments, however. These are used to allow the department to track student progress and to assess the effectiveness of various courses, etc. Therefore, the key assignment aspect of the Tk20 system helps students in an indirect way: it helps make sure everyone is doing all right and lets the department know how and where to improve what we do. By using the Tk20 system, students have access to the graded key assignments as soon as they’re done by the instructors. Students needn’t come to campus, see if an assignment is still in someone’s office a couple of semesters later, etc. They are all available right away from any Internet-connected computer via Tk20. Now, like Blackboard, Tk20 can be used to handle more than just the key assignments—that’s simply all we’re doing in the Fall 2007. We figured that we wanted to implement only a few of the things Tk20 does this semester so we don’t overwhelm you, the instructors, or the department. The system also lets students keep track of major events in their programs to make sure they are on course to graduate on time. It also lets students communicate with their instructors; it thus serves as a back-up in case a student has a hard time reaching an instructor by phone or email. Program handbook as well as the graduate catalog will also be accessible through the system, as well as are students’ current courses. Students have also said that they hear different things from different people about what they need to do and when things need to be done. By posting this information through Tk20 and our website, we hope to prevent much of this sort of confusion in the future. Of course, changes and updates can be posted through the Tk20 system more quickly than they can be distributed through postal mail or through printing out announcements to be made by instructors in their classes. So, for example, if the NYS DOE changes a regulation or due date, we can post this immediately on Tk20. In some ways, then, Tk20 is similar to Blackboard; the difference being that Tk20 focuses not on teaching, but on keeping track of students and their progress. One part of the system is the creation of an electronic portfolio, but it also, e.g., allows students and instructors to communicate, access course material (if the instructor has uploaded them), keep track of where students are in their progress through their program, etc. This section began by saying that one of the main reasons the Education Department is using Tk20 is to address issues students have raised. The final thing Tk20 is currently be used to do is facilitate feedback from students (and others) and thus help us meet your needs better and more quickly. Through the system, we monitor such things as how quickly and well students progress through their programs (letting us see where there are consistent sticking points and bottlenecks); which programs need more courses and resources, how well people are fairing in their student teaching/practica (for those who have them); what services we are providing well and which need to be handled better (such as more office hours or better advisement strategies—two recent changes we’ve made); and—most importantly—how well we have prepared our students to be effective, professional teachers after they graduate. We monitor these and other things through the key assignments; grades; the sequence and rate at which students take courses and pass through program transition points; through surveys sent to students, alumni, and employers; through fieldwork evaluations, etc—all made easier (and in some cases possible) by the Tk20 system. Of course, this last function of Tk20 is not so visible to students. That’s a bit unfortunate since it’s probably the single most important thing we can used anything to do: to serve you better. The assessments the departments conducts are guided by our Conceptual Framework. The Conceptual Framework is the over-arching mission of the department; it embodies the ideals of goals of our various education programs. You can learn more about it here. I’m a student in an advanced program (Sequence 1 or Education Leadership). Do I still have to use Tk20? The key assignments are exhibits (and concomitant reflections) from courses that are used by those who create portfolios to populate their portfolios. Those who are not in portfolio-creating programs must still submit key assignments, however. These are used to allow the department to track student progress and to assess the effectiveness of various courses, etc. Therefore, the key assignment aspect of the Tk20 system helps students in an indirect way: it helps make sure everyone is doing all right and lets the department know how and where to improve what we do. Fortunately, that is not all that the Tk20 system is set up to do. Primarily based on feedback from students in previous years, the system also lets you keep track of major events in your program to make sure you are on course to graduate on time. It also lets you communicate with your instructors; it thus serves as a back-up in case you have a hard time reaching an instructor by phone or email. Your program handbook as well as the graduate catalog will also be accessible through the system, as well as are the previous and current courses. In some ways, then, Tk20 is similar to Blackboard; the difference being that this system focuses not on teaching, but on keeping track of students (you) and their progress. One part of the system is the creation of an electronic portfolio, but it also, e.g., allows you and instructors to communicate, access course material (if the professor has uploaded them), keep track of where you are in your progress through your program, etc. How do I submit a Key Assignment through Tk20? How do I resend a Key Assignment if I made a mistake the first time? There are no pending tasks in my account. How do I submit a key assignment without them? Teacher Certification and the New York State Teacher Certification Exams You may receive more than one teacher certification. For example, you may be certified to teach Early Childhood and English as a Second Language and Special Education. However, for each certification, you must first obtain your initial certification, and then your professional. More information about certification can be found in:
How do I apply for certification? More information is available can found:
Lots more good information about the exams can be found on the Basic Information for the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations section of our Resources page. Graduation Requirements and Commencement How do I apply for graduation? What do I need to know and do for the graduation commencement ceremony? How do I get a cap and gown for commencement? How do I access my CIX email? First-time user of CIX email? Can I forward CIX email to another email account? More questions about CIX email? |
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