Bowling Green State University is home to a learning community called Educators in Context and Community (ECCO). This learning community engages teacher candidates in the classroom starting their first semester at BGSU.

1. The community

The community of ECCO (pronounced "echo") is one of the greatest features of the program. There are many opportunities for future teachers to meet other education majors, both in and outside of their concentration.

2. Field placements

While the university has placements set up with certain classes, the placements through ECCO provide a wider range of opportunities for teacher candidates to be exposed to. Urban, rural, and suburban contexts are explored, along with public private, and charter schools.

3. The push to better yourself as an educator.

ECCO is about more than getting into the classroom at an early start. A big concentration of the program is about the development as an individual and as an educator. ECCO introduces future teachers to the school and the community of their placements.

4. Trips

Several times a year ECCO members take trips across the country. These trips include a great time, but the trips are more than just fun. Members travel to different states exploring different schools and communities and lend a helping hand wherever they are needed.

5. Programming

Programs are decided by the ECCO community. These programs can be anything from professional development opportunities to social events.

6. The ECCO Conference

Every Spring semester ECCO holds the annual ECCO Conference. Every member of the organization picks a topic in education that he/she is passionate about and researches into the topic in order to present his/her findings to other members of ECCO and the surrounding community of Bowling Green.

7. The IPDP

The IPDP is also known as the Individualized Professional Development Plan. This plan is based around personal goals to help one improve as an individual and as an educator.

8. Executive Board

The ECCO Executive Board is a group of members who are passionate about making a change. Executive board members hold a year long term and act as the backbone of the community.

9. Houses

Within ECCO are houses. Every member is placed into a "house" that he/she is interested in based on educational themes and concepts. A variety of education based topics are discussed in houses, with all topics being decided through the community of each house.

10. Experience

Going into methods and student teaching, there are some teacher candidates that go into the classroom with little experience working with students and supervising teachers. ECCO exposes future teachers to a real classroom and provides many opportunities to teach, observe, and interact. The experiences through ECCO can help make a smooth transition into methods and student teaching.

11. Dr. Vrooman

There are a lot of great people who work with ECCO and Dr. Vrooman is seen as the leader of the "pack." This man works wonders and will push you to become the best individual and teacher you can be. Not to mention he has awesome hair.

If at any point you read through this and thought that ECCO would be something that you would like to try out, feel free to contact Dr. Vrooman at vrooman@bgsu.edu.

Joining this community will be one of the best decisions you have ever made.

You won't regret it.