Updated: 4/12/17, jlc
The University of Texas at Austin
...
Field experiences at The University of Texas at Austin are an integral component of our teacher preparation programs, built on strong collaboration between school districts and colleges of the University. Our future teachers engage in purposefully crafted field experiences that cultivate depth of knowledge, research-based practices, and professional ethics. These experiences are designed to be sequential, cumulative, and performance-based, while preparing our graduates to implement and evaluate effective practices with diverse student populations in varied settings. As a result, teachers prepared at the University will master subject knowledge and pedagogical skills, work collaboratively with all stakeholders, develop dispositions to be active citizens, and offer their students the opportunity to develop these characteristics themselves.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
Teachers graduating from our programs will have the dispositions and skills needed to be highly effective teachers of children from all racial, ethnic, linguistic, and socio-economic groups presently underserved by the public school system in Texas.
...
- Invite the intern/student teacher to visit your classroom before the first day of the placement. This is a good way to establish a positive rapport and to show the intern/student teacher important places in the school building.
- Provide the beginning teacher with a desk or table area and place for his/her belongings.
- Ask the intern/student teacher to provide you with a brief résumé or autobiography (many times this is a university course requirement).
- Introduce your intern/student teacher to the office staff and the principal.
- Talk to the principal about introducing your intern/student teacher at the next faculty meeting and/or parent-teacher conference.
- Ask the intern/student teacher to make nametags for each student. In this way, he/she will have an opportunity to get to know their names more quickly.
- Furnish the intern/student teacher with a spiral notebook to serve as a dialogue or conversation journal between the two of you throughout the semester.
- Ask the beginning teacher to write a short letter introducing him/herself to be sent to parents or to be included in your next class newsletter. You may need to furnish some guidance as to the content and length of the letter. This is a good opportunity for the intern/student teacher to share with you the videotaping agreement form for parents to sign and return.
- Ask your intern/student teacher to bring some photographs and information about himself/herself and create a bulletin board for the class. (Optional)
...
Planning a formal conversation or letter of introduction for your intern or student teacher:
...
- Each day for the first few days, give the beginning teacher an index card and ask him/her to record observations and write questions concerning the students that the two of you will discuss later. Some sample focus questions follow:
- Which students seem to be visual learners? Auditory? Kinesthetic? How is instruction adjusted for these students?
- Which students work better independently? With a partner? In groups?
- Which students seem to finish their work first? Last?
- Show your intern/student teacher how to keep running reading records on each student.
- Include your intern/student teacher in grading or assessing student papers or center work (checklists, rubrics, portfolios, grading system).
- If you keep portfolios or folders of student work, share these with your intern/student teacher early in the semester.
- Allow interns/student teachers to review student agendas (upper grades) or prepare folders of weekly work in order to note typical student progress.
Examining texts and curriculum materials:
...
- Allowintern/student teacher to examine some of the texts and resources that you use in your planning and teaching.
- Share the TEKS and IPGs for your grade level and show how you incorporate them into your teaching and planning.
- Let the beginning teacher sit in on your team planning sessions and encourage him/her to take an active role in participating.
- When you teach a lesson involving a textbook, ask the intern/student teacher to follow along from your teacher’s guide so that he/she will begin to see how you use these materials.
- Ask the intern/student teacher to share with you the resources s/he is using to prepare required lessons (Web sites, curriculum guides, outside resources).
...
Getting your intern/student teacher actively involved:
...
- Taking roll and other beginning of class routines
- Talking one-on-one with the students to get to know them better
- Collecting papers at the end of a lesson
- Sharing information about him/herself with the class (hometown, hobbies, experiences)
- Moving “up front” as he or she circulates around the room during work periods to begin to get comfortable being in front of the students
- Get the beginning teacher involved in a moderate level of grading
- Encourage your intern/student teacher to assist you with a small amount of group work
- Reading a particular story or article to the class and to plan some questions for discussion afterwards
...
Recording observations for feedback and conferencing with your preservice teacher:
...
- Discuss together the goals of the lesson to be observed.
- Discuss the success indicators of the lesson. Ask: “How will you know if the students are on task?” or “How will you know if they have learned?” (See more sample questions below)
- Discuss the materials and the preparation needed for the lesson.
- Discuss approaches, strategies, and decisions that may need to be made during the lesson.
- Explain the methods of data collection you will use for the observation. Some lessons involve anecdotal writing; others may involve timing, tallying, or coding.
During an observation:
- Focus on the observation goals that were agreed upon before the lesson.
- Write down questions and suggestions for later discussion.
- Look for positives, as well as suggestions for improvement.
- Collect data on both teacher behavior and student behavior that may prove useful to your intern/student teacher.
...
Reflective conferencing after the lesson:
...
Planning Conference – The Mentor Teacher might ask: |
“What is your lesson going to be about?” (Describe)
|
“As you see the lesson unfolding, what will students be doing?” (Translate) |
“As you envision this lesson, what do you see yourself doing to produce expected outcomes?” (Predict) |
“What will you be doing first? Next? Last? How will you close the lesson?” (Sequence)
|
“As you envision the opening of the lesson, how long do you anticipate that will take?” (Estimate) |
“What will you see students doing or hear them saying that will indicate to you that your lesson is successful?” (Operationally criteria)
|
“What will you look for in students’ reactions to know if your directions are understood?” (Metacognition) |
“What will you want me to look for and give you feedback about while I am watching this lesson?” (Describe) |
Post-Conference or Reflecting Conference – The Mentor Teacher might ask: |
“As you reflect back on the lesson, how do you feel it went?” (Assess)
|
“What did you see students doing (or hear them saying) that made you feel that way?” (Recall) |
“What do you recall about your own behavior during the lesson?” (Recall)
|
“How did what you observed in student behavior compare with what you planned and presented?” (Compare)
|
“How did what you planned compare with what you did?” (Compare)
|
“What were you thinking when you decided to change the design of the lesson?” (Meta- cognition)
|
“What hunches do you have to explain why some students performed as you had hoped while others did not?” (Analyze) |
“What did you do (or not do) to produce the results you wanted?” (Cause-effect)
|
“As you reflect on this discussion, what big ideas or insights are you discovering?” (Synthesize) |
“As you plan future lessons, what ideas have you developed that might be carried forward to the next lesson or other lessons?” (Self-prescription) |
“As you think back over our conversation, what has this coaching session done for you? What is it that I did (or did not) do? What assisted you? What could I do differently in future mentoring sessions? What did you do to grow your reflective practices?” (Evaluate) |
...
- Formative Assessments are completed by the preservice teacher (PS), the university field supervisor (UF), and the cooperating teacher (CT), each on a separate form at mid-semester and again at the end of the intern semesters.
- Summative Assessments are completed only at the end of the student teaching semester and are completed by the CT and the UF only.
- Follow the instructions for your online Formative or Summative Evaluation completion and submission at https://educationwikis.utexas.edu/aboutdisplay/offices/field-experiences/resources/assessmentsCOEfieldexperiences/Student+Assessments .
- Rate each observable behavior, if there was no opportunity to observe a specific behavior then you may rate that one as “NA."
- It is very important for cooperating teachers and university field supervisors to cite specific examples of the observed behaviors as Supporting Evidence at the end of each of the four clusters, especially if scores are low.
- A three-way conference will be held to discuss the evaluation and set goals if it is a formative assessment.
- The UT student will read each assessment and ask for clarification, if needed.
- The field supervisor and cooperating teacher will submit their copies online. This does not mean that the student teacher agrees with the assessment; only that she or he has read it.
- For the final Summative Assessment, both copies will comprise the final legal documentation.
- It is the responsibility of the field supervisor to make sure that the student teacher hits the “reviewed” button so that the final document can be routed on to the coordinator for final approval. If this does not occur, the field supervisor has the responsibility of following up with the signatures for routing.
...
Enjoy this time with your intern or student teacher and just know that we could not properly train our preservice teachers without your invaluable assistance, patient guidance, and unending support. Thank you very much!
FERPA Statement
I acknowledge institutional services for The University of Texas at Austin with regard to student information. I will not redisclose student FERPA information that is under the direct control and protection of The University of Texas at Austin.
...