4cr This course offers all majors and minors an opportunity to explore urban communities with mentors in elementary schools. Students will read about current issues in urban education as well as three specific models of urban teaching, learn about schools as social institutions in urban settings, the basics of lesson planning and assessment, and work directly with a mentor teacher to plan and execute a needs-based urban learning experience within local schools. Prerequisite: This course requires the permission of the instructor(s) because potential participants will need to fill out a background check for each school or district which they will be visiting in advance of J-term. Also, students need to be made aware that the course does not follow a standard 3 hours per day model, but will need to begin many days at 7:00am and extend past 3 hours.