One year ago, the Arizona Department of Education and Northern Arizona University came together to announce the creation of the Arizona Teacher Residency. Housed within the Arizona K12 Center, the Arizona Teacher Residency now has its first cohort of residents working in the classrooms of supervising teachers in Osborn, Roosevelt, and Tempe Elementary school districts. Today, you’ll hear from one resident and supervising teacher pair about their experience with the program so far.

3Ps in a Pod host Kathy Wiebke welcomes Arizona Teacher Residency Director Dr. Victoria Theisen-Homer to the podcast to talk about the creation and envision of this new program. Hector Campos, one of the members of the first Arizona Teacher Residency cohort, shares about what excited him about this program and how delighted he was to find out that his supervising teacher would be Edgar Ochoa, the middle school social studies teacher who inspired him to become a middle school social studies teacher. Campos now works with Ochoa in his classes at Pastor Elementary School in the Roosevelt School District.

Theisen-Homer shares about some of the unique structures of the program and how those structures support residents and their supervising teachers, while Ochoa and Campos, as a supervising teacher and resident pair, share how they have experienced the residency program so far. Campos also shares about what he has learned through the Arizona Teacher Residency and why he recommends the program to others interested in becoming a teacher.

The application is now open to join the second cohort of the Arizona Teacher Residency. Learn more about the Arizona Teacher Residency and apply at aztr.org.

Learn more about the Arizona K12 Center at azk12.org.