Paulina Longoria | THE RIDER
The UTeach RGV program and club are ready to keep their students and community engaged with a Virtual Workroom during these pandemic and online times.
Traditionally, the program furnished a workroom on each campus for its students to study, plan lessons, practice teaching, work on projects, check out instructional resources, connect with fellow UTeach students, tutor each other, meet with master teachers and review for certification exams, according to its website.
The Virtual Workroom meetings will be held via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 9 a.m. to noon Fridays. They will be hosted by workroom assistants who are senior students from the UTeach program.
“We do not want to lose that sense of family environment that we have and is very strong in our UTeach program, so we’re coming out with ideas,” said Liliana Treviño, an assistant professor in practice and a mathematics master teacher for UTeach.
Treviño said the Virtual Workroom would be helpful to freshmen who want to become involved with an organization in the university. The program encourages freshmen and sophomores to join the meetings for practice lessons or school advice.
“We believe that this is key for keeping students engaged and getting to know each other,” she said.
UTeach RGV “is a middle and high school mathematics and science teacher preparation and certification program that promotes inquiry-based learning and instruction,” according to its mission statement. It prepares “highly skilled, inspiring educators with deep subject expertise through integrated and cohesive coursework with early and consistent community-based teaching experiences.”
About 400 students are enrolled in UTeach classes this semester, according to Treviño.
Geovanelly Torres, a mathematics senior seeking UTeach certification for seventh through 12th grades, said they are trying t0 have a sense of community through the Virtual Workroom.
“We hope that students can join us and we can advise them on classes or just catch up with them,” Torres said. “We plan to practice their teaching lessons with them.”
Manuel Rebolledo, a mathematics senior seeking UTeach certification for seventh through 12th grades, said they want to make the workroom to stay in communication and be able to help the students who are taking the first UTeach classes of the program. They want to keep practicing the lessons the way they used to do it in the regular workrooms on campus.
There is also a UTeach Student Organization, and the advisers are Gustavo Valencia, a mathematics master teacher and an associate professor in practice on the Brownsville campus, and Anna Gonzalez, a mathematics master teacher and an associate professor in practice on the Edinburg campus.
Cesar Lozano, a mathematics senior seeking UTeach certification for seventh through 12th grades and president of the UTeach club Brownsville chapter, said everyone is aware social gatherings cannot happen anymore but the club wants to hold more Zoom meetings for the members to have a free time together to talk and help each other.
“We want to help every single one of them get along … the new students, the new members of the family to know each other to find more friends because at the end, we are gonna be the ones who are gonna help them … to become … good teachers,” Lozano said.
Treviño said the program also plans to host a Coffee Hour with the UTeach master professors at 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays.
“We are like the coaches of the program because we are with our students from the very beginning,” she said. “We are their support … who tells them about their strengths and to improve their weaknesses.”
Gonzalez said the UTeach program is like a support system for the students, who are the next generation of leaders.
“The program itself comes out where they become really strong teachers,” Gonzalez said. “We give them a lot of strategies, we give them a lot of support. … We’re seeing good teachers. … The program is strong. … We’re getting the good candidates out there.”
Access the Virtual Workroom at this Zoom link. UTeach students can also schedule lesson practices by emailing uteachworkroombr@utrgv.edu.
