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College of Education - Resources

Welcome to GSU's Secondary Education Program for Biology, Chemistry, English, and Mathematics

NCATE logoThe College of Arts and Sciences, in cooperation with the College of Education, offers students four programs that include the option of earning teacher certification in secondary education. We are proud to claim state and national accreditation.

New Student Orientation/Advising Sessions

All new students to the Secondary Education program at GSU must attend an orientation/advising session before enrolling in courses.  IMPORTANT: Please plan to take the ETS Proficiency Profile test immediately following the orientation.  The exam is two hours with a ten minute break.  The test will be held in the Academic Resource Center, room B1215.  You will need to bring a picture ID, two #2 pencils (no mechanical pencils) and a scientific calculator (no graphing features, no cell or smart phones allowed).

Next Sessions
  

Resources for New and Continuing Students

Advising Checklist

 

College of Education Library Activity Room  - D2421

For Technology Assistance (including assistance with LiveText™) in D2420 contact Jay Dwarampudi at jdwarampudi@student.govst.edu. 

To reserve D2421 for study/project groups contact Dr. Linda Geller:

 

LiveText™ 

What is LiveText™? 

It is a program into which courses, assignments, instructors, and students are entered each semester.  Students can create documents, such as lesson plans and unit plans, in LiveText™ that they submit for the assignments.  In LiveText™, GSU templates are often available for students to use.  Files such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF can be uploaded to the LiveText™ documents.  Image files such as .jpg, .png, and .gif (included animated .gif files) can be uploaded into LiveText™ documents.  Assignments are graded using LiveText™ generated rubrics.  Once graded, students can view the graded rubrics along with any comments made by the instructor.  The rubrics are tied to learning and accreditation standards.  Accreditation bodies can view data generated by the graded rubrics to award accreditation.  LiveText™ will be used in all Secondary Education Methods courses, as well as for Student Teaching.  All students will create a Program e-Portfolio in LiveText™ for their specific Program content area (see directions below to view sample e-Portfolios). 

What are some benefits for students of using LiveText™? 

  1. LiveText™ acts as a depository for files, complete with a file manager, that can be accessed through the students’ secure accounts. 
  2. LiveText™ has a feature, called Smart Labels, which allows files to be easily organized.  It can be used to organize documents by course number.  It can be used in the teaching profession to organize lesson plans by subject area, grade level, and AP or Honors distinctions. 
  3. Complete sets of standards are available so that students can select standards to insert into documents.  The standard numbers appear in the document, along with the complete wording of each standard.  The standards don’t have to be typed. 
  4. Students can create Professional e-Portfolios that they can use to showcase their work to potential employers.  Students can create a visitor pass that can be used to view selected documents.  
  5. LiveText™ has video resources available called Learn360® that includes video clips on various topics and of varying lengths.   
  6. LiveText™ provides students with the ability to create their own grading rubrics.  These can be created as stand-alone assessment documents, or as part of a lesson or unit plan document. 
  7. Students can share documents with their peers so that several students can collaborate. 

Secondary Education Students: If you need assistance with LiveText™, you can contact Melinda Elliott at melliott@govst.edu or call 708-235-7593 Monday – Friday, 8:30 to 5:00 or Bharadwaj Keesari at  bharadwaj.keesari@gmail.com. 

To view sample Secondary Education e-portfolios and a LiveText™ tutorial, go to www.livetext.com.  At the visitor pass prompt (not the user ID/password prompt) enter the following visitor pass:  18D8717D.  Note: you do not need a LiveText account to use this code.  There are two sample e-Portfolios.  They showcase the difference between simply attaching files to the portfolio versus placing the words directly into a LiveText™  document. 

For Secondary Education Instructor's tutorial - LiveText visitor pass:  035F33C0

For LiveText Faculty Tenure Portfolio tutorial - LiveText visitor pass: D29B9806

 GPA Calculators

Calculate your own Core Content GPA, Professional Education Course GPA, and Program specific General Education GPA to see if you are qualified to apply for student teaching: 

Open the Excel spreadsheet for your program as a "Read Only" file. Once the file is open, choose "save as" and rename the file under another name.  Changes can  then be saved to the renamed file.

 

  

ETS Test

The ETS examination is required for all students in the following programs:

  • BA Early Childhood Education
  • BA Elementary Education
  • BA English with Teacher Education
  • BA Mathematics with Teacher Education
  • BS Biology with Teacher Education
  • BS Chemistry with Teacher Education

Test dates for academic year 2012/2013 will be determined and posted soon.

Note:  Post-Baccalaureate Certificate students should select the Undergraduate option when registering for this test.  Unfortunately, there is no option for Post-Baccalaureate Certificate students.

College of Education - Resources 

Test Administration Guidelines:

  1. Accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Contact Robin Sweeney, Coordinator of Student Disability Services, 708.235.3968.
  2. Check-in for testing will begin 30 minutes prior to the scheduled test times above.
  3. Only those whose names appear on the ETS Proficiency Profile pre-registration list will be admitted to the testing session.
  4. You must have a photo ID in order to be admitted to the exam session.
  5. Testing will begin promptly at the published times. There will be no admission to the testing room once testing has begun. 
  6. Use of dictionaries or other books, pamphlets, slide rules, compasses, rulers, pens, or papers of any kind is prohibited during the test. The only materials permitted to be on the desk during the test session are: the test booklets, answer sheets, pencils, and erasers. Scratch paper is not permitted. You will be permitted to use the margins or blank pages in the test booklets only (you may not use any portion of the answer sheet for scratch paper.) Students may use a 4-function non-graphing calculator.

REMINDER: You will not be admitted to the examination room once testing has begun.

If you have questions about the ETS exam and how it fits into your plan of study, please contact your advisor.

ICTS Tests: Test of Academic Proficiency (TAP - formerly Basic Skills), Content, APT)

Link to ICTS Home Web Page 

Link to test dates 

Student Teaching

Applications are to be submitted to your advisor--not to Sara Acton. 

When turning in your Student Teaching application, you must include all of the following:

  • The fully completed Student Teaching Application (Final draft approved by Advisor)
  • A copy of Test of Academic Proficiency (TAP) or Basic Skills results
  • GPA calculators for general education courses, professional education courses, and core content area
  • A copy of completion of Criminal Background check
  • A copy of your GSU transcripts
  • A copy of the Updated Study Plan

Please include a copy of the Content Exam results if it has been taken prior to submitting the Student Teaching application.