Be ready on day one

Learn to teach through an immersive experience

A community of supportive faculty, teacher mentors, and peers awaits you at the NYU Teacher Residency. The immersive design intentionally surrounds you with hands-on, facilitated learning experiences in a safe environment that cultivates your growth into an effective teacher. When it’s time to lead a classroom of your own, you are ready on day one. You will have the practical foundation to meet the needs of each student and confidently know how to build a community of learners.

As a teacher resident, your web of support includes NYU Steinhardt faculty, a cohort of peers, a teacher mentor, a residency director, and school partner leadership.

Web of support

While learning alongside a highly effective teacher mentor, you learn to teach in the same school for the entire year. NYU Steinhardt faculty instruct you on course modules that align with what you’re doing in the classroom. Your teacher mentor builds your responsibilities as you master techniques and theory. This is called “gradual release of responsibility.”

While you’re learning the foundational theories and techniques of being a teacher, you have fewer responsibilities. As you reach the active practice stage, you will experience an increase in responsibilities in the classroom. Then at peak teaching, toward the end of your residency, you will act as lead teacher in the classroom.

Gradual release

Online learning

You meet online with NYU Steinhardt faculty and peers twice per week in the evening using the interactive tools, Zoom and Canvas. While collaborating and building meaningful relationships with peers, mentors, and faculty in this learning community, you share challenges and gain helpful advice as you study cutting-edge learning theory.

A third interactive video tool called Torsh is used to observe your progression, identify areas where you need additional support, and celebrate your successes.  You become comfortable recording your instructional lessons and receiving feedback from faculty and teacher mentors in order to reflect on and learn from.

Content-area expertise

While gaining the essential skills that all teachers need to be effective in the classroom, such as how to build a responsive and respectful classroom environment, you also become an expert in your chosen content area. As you become an effective middle- or high-school teacher, you will lead and inspire a classroom of students in a subject area. The only way to impart and share this knowledge is to become an expert in the content. NYU Steinhardt faculty and content mentors work with you throughout the residency year to build your expertise. Learn more about choosing a content area.

One-on-one support

The Teacher Residency is designed to prepare you to make the greatest impact. Your team of support – from faculty to residency directors – address your unique skills and areas for growth. In the classroom, a highly skilled teacher mentor works with you to learn the many aspects of being a teacher.

Become part of the community

You receive coaching from NYU Steinhardt faculty, residency directors, and on-site mentor teachers to become an active member of the school. You learn how to create a sense of community in the classroom, while building connections with families and an understanding of, and belonging to, the local community. All of this happens in parallel with the close connections being built with your fellow cohort members.

You undergo a research project during the residency year where your students take center stage. This Participatory Action Research (PAR) project is facilitated by you and co-designed with your students. Residents study everything from school culture and bullying policies, to efforts that make math more fun and engaging. This project fosters your relationship with one of the most important communities in your role as an educator: your student community.