What is the Teaching Apprenticeship Program?
DAY ONE trains teachers and provides respectful wages and opportunities
For apprentice teachers, DAY ONE provides a model school setting where they work side-by-side with master teachers during a ten-week apprenticeship program. DAY ONE partners with teachers in their learning and provides respectful wages and opportunities. Our goal is to transform early childhood teachers from providing daycare to creating an interactive, early childhood learning experience for teachers and children alike.
How the DAY ONE Teacher Apprenticeship Program works
The DAY ONE Teacher Apprenticeship Program (DAY ONE TAP) is an intensive, full time ten week apprenticeship program for teachers of varied experience and educational backgrounds. During the ten week apprenticeship period, a group of ten teachers will be selected to participate in the program. Each teacher will be placed in an early childhood classroom in the DAY ONE Teaching and Learning Center or a DAY ONE affiliate school, alongside one or more master teachers. The apprenticeship teachers will work in the classroom for five hours each morning and attend a group apprenticeship course for two and a half hours each afternoon.
Learning and sharing with other apprentice teachers
The adult class each afternoon will focus on the apprentice teachers’ experiences in the early childhood classrooms. An innovative curriculum for early childhood teachers will include daily reflection of classroom teaching experiences, introduce new content, and provide preparation time to implement that content the following day.
DAY ONE TAP is designed as a professional cohort building model for early childhood educators. The teachers participating in each ten week cohort will create and share materials throughout the apprenticeship, thus multiplying their resources that can then be taken back into their home classroom or to a new job. Each cohort is also designed to provide ongoing support and resources to one another as professional early childhood educators.
A ten-week program with stipend and materials for your own classroom
As part of a teacher’s participation in DAY ONE TAP, the teacher will receive a ten week stipend and a set of purchased materials to use in their early childhood classrooms.
Currently employed teachers can participate with the help of an exchange teacher
Beginning in 2022! In order for currently employed teachers to participate in DAY ONE TAP for ten weeks, DAY ONE Early Learning Community will provide an exchange teacher to each teacher’s classroom. These exchange teachers will be master teachers hired by DAY ONE Early Learning Community for this purpose. The exchange teacher will spend ten weeks in the apprenticeship teacher’s home classroom; this will provide additional expertise to local early childhood classrooms as well as stability for the early childhood home, school or center.
The cost of the DAY ONE exchange teachers will be covered by DAY ONE Early Learning Community; thus, there will not be additional cost burdens placed on the apprenticeship teacher’s home classroom during their leave to participate in DAY ONE’s Teacher Apprenticeship Program.
Our goal is to place 200 DAY ONE teachers in Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County over the next five years.
Ongoing financial stipends and professional development guidance are an important component for teachers successfully completing the DAY ONE Teacher Apprentice Program. Teachers successfully completing the ten week apprenticeship program will be eligible for a monthly stipend as long as these criteria continue to be met:
- Demonstration of ongoing best practices in the classroom
- Continued employment in an early childhood home, center or school within Dutchess County
- Continued participation in ongoing supervision mentorship