King students headed to Chicago

BRISTOL, Tenn. — On Sunday, 13 students from King College’s Teacher Education Program will depart the Tri-Cities region, bound for the Chicago Oak Park School District.

Ten teacher education students along with faculty representatives Matt Roberts, associate dean of teaching and educational development; Gloria Oster, director of teacher education; and Ken Oster, adjunct professor of Spanish, will be working in the school district that bills itself as the “capital of diversity” in Chicago.

The Oak Park School District is split almost evenly among Asian, Caucasian, African-American and Hispanic ethnicities. While in Chicago, King students will be working mostly with at-risk students in a summer school setting.

“We want our students to have an opportunity to observe how schools operate when dealing with diverse student populations such as Chicago has,” said Oster.

“We feel our teacher candidates will be better prepared for their careers by witnessing the challenges and successes of a school system quite different from what they have seen in field experiences in East Tennessee. Another dimension to this ‘urban field experience’ is that students partake of the history, culture, architecture and cuisine of an iconic American city.”