Teaching internships, personal training course among new offerings planned for New Trier students

New Trier High School is looking to give its students more real-world and career experiences with its proposed new courses for next school year, which were introduced at the School Board’s most recent meeting.

Five new courses are being proposed for the district, while several existing courses are undergoing minor modifications. If approved, the changes would take effect for the 2026-2027 school year.

Dr. Chimille Tillery, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said during the board’s Nov. 17 meeting that the five proposed new courses provide “a focus on career-connected learning, emphasis on experiential learning, the expansion of semester offerings, and increased access to some AP courses.”

Tillery first discussed Teaching Internship 101 and 102, courses that she said are intended to be a “capstone experience for students exploring education as a career pathway.”

“These courses provide real-world exposure by placing students in partner schools during the school day,” she said. “They’ll run concurrently with (existing) Foundations of Teaching course beginning with a pilot in 2026-27.”

Students enrolled in the internship reportedly will have already taken Foundations of Education and will travel to a “partner school” during a block period.

Tillery said New Trier’s “sender schools are very excited about this opportunity.”

A longtime English class will also now be offered as an AP course with the proposed AP Literature and composition: post-Colonial literature.

The AP course, according to Tillery’s memo to the board, will study “non-Western authors from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Indigenous communities,” and will introduce “students to postcolonial theory, examining how literature responds to and resists the political, cultural, and psychological impacts of colonialism.”

“The movement shares greater student access to rich and rigorous college-level learning while honoring the depth already present in the course,” Tillery said at the board meeting. “This full-year AP course broadens our offerings so students see themselves represented in the literature they study while engaging with complex global themes.”

Two more of the proposed changes are AP courses within New Trier’s Integrated Global Studies School, or IGSS, an interdisciplinary “school within a school” open to juniors and seniors.

AP Seminar: IGSS English is described by Tillery in her memo as “an interdisciplinary course that encourages students to demonstrate critical thinking, collaboration and academic research skills on topics of the student’s choosing.”

“Our IGSS curriculum is already strongly aligned with the individualized inquiry-based approach of AP Seminar, so this is less of a shift and more of a new opportunity for IGSS students,” she said.

Similarly, AP Research: IGSS English is proposed as the second course in the AP Capstone sequence.

“It invites students to design and carry out a yearlong investigation on a topic of their choice,” Tillery said. “Students learn research methodology, practice ethical research and engage in ongoing reflection throughout the process. This course culminates in an academic paper and presentation, giving students an authentic experience with the expectations of college-level research.”

The final proposed new course is personal training, a semester-long course open to juniors and seniors.

“The course integrates concepts from exercise science, anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, nutrition, and behavior change and introduces students to exercise science and ethics of personal fitness,” Tillery said. “The curriculum is application based, giving students hands-on experience while exploring potential career interests.”

In addition to the new courses, Tillery said changes to 15 existing courses are being proposed. They include course name changes, duration changes from a full year to one semester, level changes, and which students the course is open to.

Board Member Courtney McDonough praised the proposed changes, and in particular highlighted the teaching internships.

“I think it’s just a great way for kids to get hands-on experience, connect with the community,” she said. “And who knows? Some of these kids might go into teaching and they might end up back here.”

The School Board plans on voting to adopt the new courses at the December board meeting.

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