150th Calendar of Events

"Celebrating the History of Teacher Education in Framingham"

The ABCs of F.S.C.
An Alphabet Poem
About My Teacher Education Preparation
Written by: Elizabeth Lang Procopio

A is for Authors.
What I learned students should be.

B is for Big Books.
Which back then were new to me.

C is for Computers.
Which weren't mainstream yet.

D is for Dwight Hall.
Where most education classes met.

E is for Evaluating math series content.
Which is an assignment I remember a lot of time was spent.

F is for Field Trips of the social studies kind.
Which we took to Plimoth and Sturbridge - a nice break from the grind.

Group Projects and Presentations represent G.
Which was how we demonstrated our ability.

H is for Handwriting.
Which we had to practice doing.

I is for Integration of curriculum areas,
which now, 12 years later, everyone does.

J is for Journals,
In which we responded to what we read.

K is for many Keen comments,
which my student teaching supervisor said.

L is for Learning, the Cooperative type, I meant to say.
We lived it so we would be able to implement it one day.

Multicultural Education goes with M.
It was a buzz word, I've heard a lot since then.

N is for Nerves I had student teaching.
All 300 hours were also exhausting.

O is for Organizers of the Graphic kind.
We learned so many, it blew our mind!

P is for the Portfolio Assessment that determined our Literacy grade.
Tests were easier than that and before our conference we all prayed!

Q is for the Quick Thinking we demonstrated a lot.
Assignments were tough and required lots of thought.

R is for Read Alouds that started each Literacy period.
We learned about quality children's literature, oh boy, we sure did!

S is for Special Education laws and integration.
Learning to design lessons that met the special needs population.

T is for Trends that evolved - Whole Language was one.
12 years ago that was THE term with which a job interview begun.

U is for Units!  We had to write two.
Learning to write lesson plans and content outlines daunted a few.

V is for Variety of math manipulatives we learned to use.  Back then
that was cutting edge because they were just starting to be used.

W is for Writing Workshop, a structure I studied so long ago.
I still use it in my classroom, a testament to Diane Lowe teaching us what was important to know.

X is for EXcellent teaching preparation,
much of still relevant now to a whole new generation.

Y is for Years of great training that will be with me always.
Certain Professors I'll never forget from those good old days.

And Finally...

Z is for Zero.  This is the number of regrets I have from fifteen years ago.
When I enrolled I questioned if I should go to a private school,
but looking back now I see,

I got the best education at F.S.C.!