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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.

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Middle School and High School Cooperating Teacher Guide

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You may find some of the questions from the book Cognitive Coaching by Costa and Garmston helpful in planning your post observation conferences:

The Language of Coaching: Questioning

A direct correlation exists between the levels and syntactical structure of questions and the production of thought.  Effective coaches deliberately use questions in ways that produce desired mental processes in the mind of the teacher.  Following are some of examples of desired mental processes and the syntactical signals to a question that might produce them.

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Special thanks to Mr. Max Fisher for the following sample letter (all names have been changed).

Introducing:

Ms. Nancy Morento

Student Teacher from the University of Texas

B.A. in History from U.T. in 1993

Graduate Austin High School 1988

Interests:  History and World Cultures, U, S, government and World Affairs, Camping, Hiking, Travel, and seeing live music in Austin.

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I’m excited to be working with Mr. Jones’ classes this semester.  We are going to be exploring an exciting time in American history.  Please come to me with any questions or comments you may have.

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Sample Letter from Cooperating Teacher -  *Thanks to Mr. Fisher for providing this sample letter.  Names and phone numbers have been changed.

Teacher Intern Info--- J.D. Jones---Spring 2015

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Teachers who can help you:  (Social Studies Phone 51982)

Doris Melling, 232, teaches US History just across the hall.

Sam Myers, 277, teaches World Geography 

Office numbers:  Phone is beside 240’s office directly across the hall and to your right.

Principal:  Patti Landers 414-3333

Substitute Prinicipal:  Joe Keeler 414-8888

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Student Teacher Sample Letter - Thanks to Judy LeMoine for this sample letter.

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• Make a seating chart...circulate while the students are working in groups…names...first and last...make me a copy too, please!
• Find out:  schedule, routine, lunch, standing at door to monitor hall, attendance.
• Meet with me Monday and Wednesday last period...Monday: tentative plans for the next week/Thursday:  plans, activity sheets etc, for the next week...plans have to be on your desk at all times...by Monday morning they need to include objectives, activities, and method of evaluation...if you are out and I am out a substitute must be able to follow them.
• Keep two folders with a copy of everything you plan and use with the students...one on your desk and one on mine.
• You will teach 3^rd/7^thperiod and help 1^st/5^thand 2^nd/6^th.  Our planning period is 4^th/8^th.  I usually eat lunch in the room.  Please do not feel you need to!  I also sometimes use this time for detention for students...for late work or missing materials.  I require students to stay and read the first 10 minutes of lunch.
• We have a work plan that outlines the year for students and parents. This will restrict some of your choices, but you can develop your own lessons and add your own touch.
• We are required to teach every STAAR skill...plan when we are going to teach it...keep a record of it being taught.  The first thing you will plan is when you are going to teach these objectives...lessons should be 15 to 20 minutes long and use the novel the students are reading or the research topics they are on...you must keep a grid with the skills and whether or not each student has mastered the skill...you will start these lessons next week 12:00 to 12:25...all five days.  After that you could use them as your warm up and have them last 5-15 minutes...it will be hard to find the time to work these lessons in...You can start planning those this week while you watch and get to know the kids...so don’t get nervous...yet.
• The students will begin teaching Lupita Manana when you take over...While you are here...you will also teach Let the Circle Be Unbroken. I want you to have a study guide for the novels before you start them.. You can change anything you want as you go along, but you must have a plan before you start.  How you do it and what you emphasize will be up to you...I will make available any materials of mine...The only things you have to do are the things required by the office to cover the STAAR objectives and the TEKS.
• You will work with the students guiding them in writing a persuasive research paper.  They will have already started the research process.
• You will be using Co Learning while you are here.  You will use it while the students work on Rights and Responsibilities and prepare for their research papers, persuasion essays and debate. Use every opportunity you have to get familiar with it.
• You will also be teaching and using Hyperstudio while students work on their HyperCard stacks for Geotopia.
• We will discuss everything in detail...and everyday all day long as we go along!
• On Friday we will sit down and plan out a calendar for the rest of the semester...remember it is not written in stone...but it is necessary, to keep from losing our minds.

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Taking Over

Week 1...observe, start routines, become familiar with Co Learning and Hyperstudio, plan STAARS activities, grade and enter grades for language arts.

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Week 3...take over language arts...teach novel, STAARS activities, and research paper

THINGS WE WILL BE WORKING ON AND NEED TO DISCUSSThings we will be working on and need to discuss!

            Let The Circle be Unbroken

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            UNWRITTEN RULES

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Materials I need to give you!

STAARS objectives and grid sheet

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Debate information

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Lessons

Title:  Lesson Plan on  Using Primary and Secondary Sources in History

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(The students will have already finished reading the memoir excerpt “Daddy” by Yolanda King.  In keeping with the theme of the day-temptation-I will set up a tray of cookies to pique the students’ attention and “tempt” them. I will tell the students that they are not the receivers of the tasty treats, but will fill them in on my scheme at the end of the class by letting them have the cookies that were intended for them all along)

Objectives:

1. To establish connections between different texts and time periods, students will be able to list at least 2-3 differences and similarities between “The Sirens” and the story “Daddy.”
2. To promote creative expressions of The Odyssey’sthemes and to encourage students to see links between the text and their own lives, students will be able to create a collage on the theme of the day-temptations.

Materials:

• Tray of cookies
• Video “Little Mermaid”
• Copy of The Odyssey(“Sirens” excerpt)
• Materials for collages

Anticipatory Set (5-7 minutes):  Show a film clip from The Little Mermaid(approximately 2 minutes).  Students should respond to the following quick-write:

In the film clip, we saw Prince Eric tempted and lured by Ursula’s song.  What in your life has “sung to you” even though you tried to resist (e.g., food, love, a great pair of jeans at the mall, drugs, that CD you know you can’t afford, alcohol, parental or school rules that you wanted to break)?  Describe your thoughts and feelings as you were trying to decide whether to succumb to your temptation or not,,,  Do you regret your decision? Why or why not?  (Since this journal entry may be quite personal, it need not be shared unless students do so voluntarily.)

Story Time (5 minutes): I will read aloud the section on the “The Sirens” (p. 617 of the text).

Group Activity (10 minutes):  In small groups, students jot down at least 2-3 similarities and differences between “Daddy” and “The Sirens” (e.g. on themes, character traits, settings, moral choices, tone, style).

Class Share (10 minutes):  On a transparency, I will jot down the similarities and differences offered by students.  (Each group should state at least one similarity and difference.)  Next, ask students to suggest some of the temptations-both obvious and subtle-that teens, children, and adults face in today’s society.

Pair-n-Share Project (10-25 minutes):  Using a sheet of construction paper, pairs of students will create a collage on the theme of “temptations” in The Odysseyand their own lives.  I will show my example first (enclosed).  They should find/draw pictures, words, symbols, and quotes from the stories and their own lives.  Examples may be serious, funny, representative of ancient Greece and/or comtempory times, literary, personal, media related, etc.

Class Share (10 minutes):  Ask for volunteers to share and explain their collages.

Oral Reading and Story Share (7 minutes):  I will copy three very brief stories from pp 56-72 of the children’s book, The Adventures of Odysseus(enclosed) and distribute theses to the students.  I will ask for volunteers to read aloud each story.  (I want students to experience the tales of Odysseus as an adventure that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.)  Even though the language in this particular book is geared toward children, the students will nevertheless become exposed to even more of Odysseus’ escapades, even if I’m not formally teaching theses particular episodes in this unit.

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