Teaching Assistant Certificate

Certificate
HEGIS #5503
Chairperson: Dr. Elizabeth Yanoff
Higbee Hall, Room 109, (518) 629-7250

The Teaching Assistant Certificate program is designed to provide students with a general core of college-level courses. For more information about teaching assistant certification from the New York State Education Department, go to www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert. The courses offered in this program also can be applied to an associate’s degree in early childhood. This entire program may be completed online or in the traditional format or a combination of both formats.

The program provides the student with an interactive classroom setting in which the student will acquire educational information and develop skills to enhance their ability to:

• Speak and write effectively
• Respond to the daily classroom management needs
• Communicate with parents, students and other staff
• Assist the teacher with preparation and instructional delivery within the classroom
• Respond to the academic and instructional needs of children with special needs
• Provide developmentally appropriate activities for children
• Demonstrate positive discipline techniques
• Identify instructional methodology including differentiated teaching strategies
• Provide support and assistance for diverse student needs

This program not only prepares the student for employment as a teaching assistant, but allows for transfer into the Early Childhood A.A.S  degree program and eventually to a four-year baccalaureate degree program in education.

Please note that, although fingerprinting is not required for admission into this program, those who seek employment working with children and seek certification from the New York State Education Department will be required to complete the fingerprinting process and background check, which may require a separate fee to an agency. Any individual with a criminal record may not find gainful employment in the field of early childhood or education.

Conceptual Framework

The Education Department is committed to preparing sensitive, caring, reflective, and considerate students who are academically strong, pedagogically skilled, and culturally responsive to the needs of diverse learners within a global society.

We believe that students should demonstrate a strong foundation and knowledge of typical and atypical child development by modeling attitudes and beliefs which reflect socioeconomic and cultural sensitivity, consideration of others, and flexibility when working with children, adults, coworkers, community members, and families within a global context and in diverse settings.

Students should demonstrate developmentally appropriate best teaching practices in a culturally responsive, inclusive, adaptive, and interactive learning environment. Each student should maintain a professional demeanor in which the student displays a positive, appropriate approach toward children and learning which demonstrates an awareness of each child’s diverse learning needs.

Our daily teaching practices are grounded in these beliefs, and values which we strive to nurture within ourselves as well as in our students.

Program Entrance Requirements

Courses	Entry Term	Special Notes	H.S. Average
Algebra or 1 unit of equivalent academic math	Fall and Spring	A 2.0 GPA is required for transfer students.	70 or above

See Technical Standard for Promotion and Graduation for the Education Department  .

The estimated cost of books for the student enrolled in the first full-time term as outlined would be approximately $105.