#1 – Teacher Education at South Mountain Community College

At South Mountain Community College, the Dynamic Learning Teacher Education Program, established in 1996, addresses the fundamental question: What is the purpose of education? Our program reflects the belief that the ultimate purpose of education is to encourage young people’s commitment to democratic values and to help them become thoughtfully engaged in creating an environmentally sustainable and humanly just world. In addition to addressing specific course competencies and modeling a collaborative learning environment, our pre-service teachers develop and implement projects such as the ones below that help them to acquire the critical consciousness necessary to participate in a democratic society.

Projects with a local teacher prep high school

Teenage Brain Fair: Students researched factors that affect the developing brain of a teenager and presented their findings through posters and activities.

Celebration of Reading: Students researched the importance of reading, interviewed high school students, located appropriate reading materials, held fundraising events, purchased reading materials, and planned a special event to present the materials at the high school.

Sustainability Projects

Students worked a full semester with sixth, seventh and eighth grade science students at a local elementary school with the goal of creating a “greener” environment at the school. Together they analyzed existing conditions at the school, conducted experiments, and researched solutions, publishing their findings in a “green” book presented to the administration.

Students involved the entire campus in expanding the recycling program.


For further information, please contact Yvonne Montiel or Jackie Jaap.

“Literacy Changes Lives—Motheread® Changes Literacy”

Motheread, Inc. is a nationally recognized, award winning family literacy program designed to build parenting, critical thinking and literacy skills, improve family communication and promote reading and story-sharing in the home. Thanks to the collaborative efforts and financial support from the Arizona Humanities Council, Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) Children’s Center, PVCC’s Early Childhood Education Department and PVCC’s Service Learning Center, Motheread classes have been offered at Echo Mountain School in the Paradise Valley Unified School District for the past two years. Aileen Johnson, Parent Activity coordinator at Echo Mountain School, helps generate awareness about the program and serves as interpreter.

Each week, PVCC instructors Harriet Betts and Kara Cossel, who have been trained in literacy techniques, present parents with a new free bilingual children’s book to take home and read with their children. Books are read and discussed in class and the mothers participate in a variety of activities they are encouraged to replicate with their own children at home. By providing the participants with children’s books in Spanish and English, the program attempts to emphasize participants' strengths to unlock the power of words and ideas. Motheread also strives to create a comfortable environment for the participants to discuss their thoughts about the books and the issues they present, generate enthusiasm about books, and create a bonding experience to facilitate communication between parents and their children.

To learn more about Motheread Programs in your area, please see the websites below:

Motheread® Arizona
Motheread, Inc