ECCO Programs

ECCO learning community programming enhances students’ skills, dispositions, and knowledge about issues related to teaching.  ECCO members have the opportunity to create and facilitate a combination of programs to meet the social, emotional, intellectual, academic, and professional needs and interests of the members.

1. Experiential Programs

The best way to learn is by doing, so we develop a lot of doing experiences for our students:

• 50 hour Field Placements each semester (1 day per week), working in classrooms alongside teachers and students.
• We offer fall break experiences to visit schools in different contexts within regional communities, including Cincinnati (2009), Cleveland (2010), Chicago (2011), Detroit (2012), Kentucky (2013), and Michigan (2014).
  
• Additionally, we offer spring break experiences to visit schools in national urban areas such as Newark, NJ, New York City, and Oklahoma City
• Beginning in 2015, ECCO will offer a two-week summer experience to visit schools across the United States.
  

2. Community-Building Programs

ECCO also works to develop a sense of community and an understanding of the contexts from which students enter our classrooms.  As such, we require and encourage community participation in the following ways:

• Live in McDonald Hall at BGSU
• Each member belongs to a house, which is a smaller group within ECCO to further develop relationships and provide support 
• Participation in community events that are organized by ECCO members
  
• Leadership positions on the ECCO Executive Board

3. Educational Programs

ECCO is a one credit course that builds a bridge between academics and the real world.  Students in ECCO take all the same classes as every other education majors, but they are able to take context- and community-focused versions of typical courses, and they participate in some of the following specialized courses and professional development opportunities:

• RESC 4700C (Seminar)—a one credit course taken each semester focusing on education issues in one of three specific contexts (urban, rural, or suburban).
• BGSU 1000C: Learning to Lead in Education
• EDHD 2010C: Introduction to Education
• EDTL 2300C: Introduction to Educational Technology
• UWP 1110C: Introduction to Academic Writing
• UWP 1120C: Academic Writing
• PSYC 1010C: General Psychology
• EDTL 2020C: Contemporary Perspectives on Teaching in the Middle Grades

Specialized classes----traditional and special interest courses for members:

• GEOG 4260C: Urban Geography
• POPC 1650C: Popular Culture and Media (focusing on teaching and school films)
• EDTL 4900C: Issues & Trends (Children, Families, and Class in Urban Communities)