More Time in the Classroom Better Prepares Future Teachers

Sacred Heart’s Teachers@Heart residency combines approximately 1,400 hours of classroom experience with sustained mentorship and a commitment to the Bridgeport community

Key Highlights

• Sacred Heart University’s Teachers@Heart residency program gives graduate teacher candidates approximately 1,400 hours of classroom experience over 40 weeks, compared with approximately 450 hours in a typical student teaching placement. 
• Residents complete a Master of Arts in Teaching with initial Connecticut teacher certification while co-teaching alongside experienced mentor teachers in Bridgeport Public Schools. 
• Thirty-one mentors have helped prepare 38 residents to teach in Bridgeport during the program’s first six years, with 11 additional residents joining the program this fall. 

When Michael Brosnan began teaching at Bridgeport’s Harding High School, he had completed a traditional 15-week student teaching placement. It was not enough to make his first year easy. 

“I was a mess the first year,” he said. “I always wished I could have had more time.” 

That experience would later help inspire Teachers@Heart, an intensive teacher residency created through a partnership between Sacred Heart University and Bridgeport Public Schools. Residents work alongside an experienced mentor for approximately 40 weeks before beginning their career instead of the condensed timeline of a traditional student teaching of about 14 weeks. 

Residents see how teachers establish routines, build relationships, and create a classroom community during the opening weeks of school. They experience the changing energy surrounding holidays and vacations, the challenges that emerge during the long stretch of winter, and the momentum of the final weeks of school. 

Most importantly, they encounter those experiences with a mentor beside them. 

“They get to experience their first year and all those problems alongside a master mentor,” said Brosnan, Bridgeport Public Schools’ development and partnership coordinator. “They don’t have to go through it alone.” 

More Time to Learn 

Traditional student teaching placements generally last between 10 and 14 weeks and provide approximately 450 hours of classroom experience. Teachers@Heart residents remain in the same classroom for approximately 40 weeks, gaining about 1,400 hours of experience as co-teachers, co-planners, and co-assessors.  

René Roselle, a Sacred Heart professor and director of the Teachers@Heart residency program, describes the extended experience as “the luxury of time.” 

“A yearlong residency allows a teacher candidate to see the full arc of a school year, from setting up a classroom and creating norms and procedures to the very last day of school,” she said. “The additional learning and mentoring are substantial and translate to a teacher who is more confident and ready upon completing the program.” 

For Brosnan, the model brings teacher preparation closer to the intensive practical training expected in other professions. 

“I wouldn’t go to a doctor who never completed a residency for licensure,” he said. “We trust electricians and plumbers to complete multiyear apprenticeships, but we don’t have the same standard for teachers, and we’re giving them our children.” 

Built in Partnership 

Teachers@Heart was not created by the University and handed to the district. Roselle and Brosnan developed it together after spending a year consulting with the National Center for Teacher Residencies and visiting established programs throughout the country.  

“We designed and implemented the program in complete partnership,” Roselle said. 

That shared ownership continues throughout the experience. Roselle and Brosnan interview prospective residents together, each approaching the conversation from a different perspective. 

“While René might be considering them for the master’s program at Sacred Heart, I’m interviewing them as my future colleague,” Brosnan said. 

Residents complete their graduate coursework during the afternoon and evening while spending the school day immersed in a Bridgeport classroom. Weekly seminars connect their coursework with what they are experiencing in schools, while mentors participate in a monthly academy offering continued professional development and support. The resident seminar and the mentor academy topics and discussions inform one another in a truly responsive way that offer all individuals the support and professional learning they need in a timely manner. 

The result is a relationship that Brosnan says differs from the transactional approach school districts sometimes encounter when working with educator preparation programs. 

“The folks at Sacred Heart really view it as a partnership,” he said. 

Preparing Teachers in Bridgeport for Bridgeport 

Brosnan student-taught in Bridgeport and never left. He spent 15 years teaching at Harding High School and found a community whose character was not always reflected in outside perceptions of the city.

“What people don’t realize is just how committed and how caring the community is here,” he said. 

He remembers families and guardians expressing their appreciation for teachers who showed up and worked hard for their children. He also describes Bridgeport students as dynamic, funny, and diverse, with an energy that makes the district an especially rewarding place to teach. 

That connection to the community is central to Teachers@Heart. The residency is designed to prepare teachers in Bridgeport schools specifically for careers in Bridgeport schools. Residents who successfully complete the program are guaranteed teaching positions and commit to remaining in the district for three years. Their tuition is reimbursed incrementally by Bridgeport Public Schools during that period. 

Over the program’s first six years, 31 mentors have helped prepare 38 residents to teach in Bridgeport. Eleven additional residents and their mentors are joining the program this fall. 

Some former residents are now returning as mentors, extending the program’s influence to a new generation of teachers. 

“When you are a Teachers@Heart resident or mentor, you are part of a unique group that understands the power of community and high-quality professional learning,” Roselle said. 

That culture of mentorship has become a strength in its own right. While other districts may struggle to recruit teachers willing to take on mentoring responsibilities, Brosnan said Bridgeport regularly has a waiting list for its mentor training programs. 

Sacred Heart’s investment in those educators is part of the reason, he said. Mentors are treated not simply as classroom hosts but as knowledgeable professionals who play an essential role in preparing future colleagues. 

Recognition for Bridging Two Worlds 

Brosnan’s work earned national recognition when the National Association for School-University Partnerships presented him with its Exemplary PK-20 Boundary Spanner Award. The honor recognizes educators who understand both school districts and higher education institutions and can build lasting connections between them. 

“Michael exemplifies what it means to be a boundary spanner,” Roselle said. “In my 24 years working in school-university partnerships, I have never met someone more deserving of this honor. His work has profoundly shaped my life, our teacher education faculty and students, our residency program, and the teachers and students of Bridgeport Public Schools.” 

Brosnan views the award as recognition of the broader partnership, including University and district leaders, the Bridgeport Board of Education, teacher candidates, and the mentors who welcome residents into their classrooms. 

“It’s an award that’s really shared by a whole lot of people,” he said. “A program like this doesn’t exist if mentor teachers aren’t willing to work with teacher candidates.” 

Ready for Their Own Classrooms 

The clearest measure of the program’s success comes when Brosnan visits Teachers@Heart graduates during their first or second year leading classrooms of their own. 

“I think I’m walking into a fifth-year teacher’s classroom,” he said. “They’ve got it together. They know the technology. They know the ebb and flow of the school year and they have come to know the Bridgeport community.” 

Matt Librandi ’24 entered the residency program without any previous classroom experience. He said the yearlong model gave him an understanding of teaching that a traditional student teaching placement could provide only a glimpse of. 

“Being in the classroom with a mentor teacher from the first day to the last allowed me to experience every aspect of being a teacher while gradually building my confidence,” Librandi said. “By the time I completed the program, I did not feel like a first-year teacher because I had already worked through so much during my residency. I cannot imagine a better introduction to teaching.” 

“The Bridgeport Teacher Residency played such an important role in shaping the teacher I am today,” said program alum Alexia Kocis ’23. “It gave me the opportunity to build my confidence in the classroom while developing a strong foundation, meaningful connections, and resources that I continue to rely on year after year. It feels full circle to now take what I learned through the program and use those experiences to mentor a student teacher of my own this year.” 

Roselle hopes residents leave the program with more than instructional knowledge and classroom management skills. Teachers@Heart also emphasizes resilience, personal wellbeing, and a belief in what educators and their students can accomplish. 

“Our goal is for residents to understand the importance of their own wellbeing,” she said, “and to feel hopeful about what is possible for themselves and their students in Bridgeport.” 

That preparation is intended to help teachers begin their careers ready not only to manage a classroom but also to become part of a school community—and, in time, to guide the educators who follow them. 

Learn more about the Teachers@Heart residency program.

Pictured: Michael Brosnan