A Guide for Cooperating Teachers
Introduction
Defining the Relationship: Student Teacher and Cooperating Teacher Handbook serves as the overview document for student teachers and cooperating teachers working with the University of Northern Iowa. Much of the material in this Supplement Guide is discussed at the beginning semester cooperating teachers orientation meetings. But because some teachers aren’t able to attend that meeting or because some of the material isn’t relevant until later in the semester, this guide will, hopefully, provide information about having a UNI student teacher. Please feel free to contact the site coordinator for further explanation about any aspect of your role during the placement.
Phase in of Responsibility
The exact nature of the amount of teaching and the length of teaching that a student teacher does is always a major question that cooperating teachers have about the experience of having a student teacher. The standard answer is that the student teacher should be given more and more responsibilities over the first few weeks leading up to a period of time when the student teacher is fully teaching. The handbook states that the length of the full time teaching should be two weeks. I would consider this a minimum length of time, and would encourage three weeks and, in some cases, four or five weeks.
However, no two student teachers have the same experience and there are a number of variables that make a difference in their amount of teaching. These variables include:
You will be asked to sit down with your student teacher early in the placement and to make a tentative plan of the long-range schedule of sharing responsibilities during the 8- weeks. This form (p.99 Student Teacher Handbook) is turned in to the University supervisor early in the placement and has two main purposes. One, it forces you to think about what the 8 week experience might be for your student teacher. Two, it provides the supervisor a general idea of when your student teacher will be increasing his/her responsibility and help the supervisor in scheduling visits. The ultimate authority on how much responsibility the student teacher is given and the nature of the schedule of the student teacher lies with the cooperating teacher. It should be kept in mind that we want to provide the student teacher with as much a real life teaching experience as the student’s skills and experience will allow.
Nature of the Feedback and Conferences with Student Teacher
As a cooperating teacher, your feedback with your student teacher will fall into two distinct and different categories. On the one hand, you’ll want to provide detailed feedback to the student teacher on the lesson(s) recently taught. Beginning teachers are anxious to hear feedback from us. They want to know what they’re doing well and what they can do better.
Your feedback should be specific, rather than general; Telling a student that they had a “good” lesson is feedback, but too general to be very helpful. Saying instead that “The lesson had good structure with an introduction that made a connection to the previous day’s lesson, provided modeling that students could understand, and had guided practice that gave the student practice and confidence to do their homework and provided the student teacher with some idea of how well the students were understanding the material”, provides the student teacher with specific information about what was good about the lesson and increases the likelihood that the student teacher will repeat that behavior in future lessons.
Your feedback should also encourage the student teacher to reflect on his/her own practice. Although it may be obvious to you that a student teacher should have planned better how to transition from one activity to another and you could easily tell them what to do next time; a greater value would be to ask the student “How might the transition between the two activities been done so that the students weren’t talking and you didn’t have to waste time to get them settle down again?” Hopefully, the student teacher’s response will lead to a dialogue about what might work and things to consider and what your experiences have taught you about transitions.
As the student teacher begins taking over responsibility and teaching lessons, your observations and feedback should be daily. But as the student teacher gains experience and confidence and your trust in their abilities grow, you’ll want to give less feedback and rely even more on reflection and dialogue. As you begin to spend time out of the room, you’ll find that your dialogue with the student teacher centers more on “What’s planned for the lesson?” and asking follow-up questions “How did the lesson, activity, test, lab go?”
Iowa House File 549
The Iowa legislature passed Iowa House File 549 that requires each cooperating teacher to provide a mock evaluation based on the Iowa Teaching Standards. This evaluation should occur in the last half of the placement. A form and further instructions are included in this packet for your use.
Student Teacher Check list
Below is a list expectations that a student teacher is encouraged to complete during the student teaching semester. These could be done during either placement, some may be done in each placement, and a few may be appropriate for only one placement. It is hoped that completing as many of these items as is practical will provide the student teacher with a broader experience and a more in-depth preparation for entering the education profession. This list is not inclusive; other activities and expectations relevant to the school and the student teacher’s experience can be added for any student teacher experience.
Each item could be a data point for meeting the Iowa Teaching Standards and Criteria.
The specific Iowa Teaching Standard and Criteria given with each item is only one possibility. Your future building principal and mentor will be the final determiners of which data points meet which standard and criteria.
_____ Attend a School Board Meeting, or watch a school board meeting in TV or review the minutes of the School Board meetings for the last year. (Iowa Standard 8, criteria a)
_____ Visit with the Local Education Association (LEA) representative and discuss benefits of membership in NEA/ISEA/ LEA.
_____ Visit with a teacher who is not a member of the LEA and discuss why not to join NEA/ ISEA/LEA.
_____ Become familiar with the AEA print and media catalog. If appropriate for a teaching unit, order a video or print material for previewing and possible use. (Iowa Standard 3, criteria e, Iowa Standard 4, criteria f)
_____ Make a bulletin board or a classroom display of student work ((Iowa Standard 1, criteria f)
_____ Send an introduction letter or incorporate an introduction of yourself in the classroom newsletter that is sent home to your students’ parents. (Lower elementary only probably)
_____ Investigate internet sites that have content information or grade appropriate plans for your area. ( Iowa standard 3, criteria f)
_____ Investigate professional organizations for your area of teaching or content area. What journals and magazine are in your area that might serve as resources for your teaching? (Iowa Standard 7, criteria a, b)
_____ Ask an administrator in your building to observe a lesson that you teach and give you feedback about his/her observation.
_____ Ask an administrator in your building to conduct a mock interview with you and provide you some feedback on your answers and presentation.
If applicable:
_____ Take part in a field trip with your class (Iowa Standard 4, criteria d)
_____ Use cooperative learning as an instructional strategy (Iowa Standard 4, criteria b & d)
_____ Integrate student computer usage into a lesson or unit. (Iowa Standard 4, criteria, f)
_____ Become familiar with the grade book and, if the district uses one, the electronic grade book. (Iowa Standard 1, criteria g)
_____ Be responsible for attendance
_____ Be responsible for make-up work and sending work home if student is sick. (Iowa Standard 1, criteria g)
_____ Video or audiotape yourself twice during your student teaching
____ See Video assignment #1
____ See Video assignment #2
_____ Sit in on an IEP meeting, if permissible, and/or a building level problem-solving meeting (Iowa Standard 8, criteria e)
_____ Secondary student teachers should attend an event outside of the regular school day: athletic, music, or drama, class party or dance, that some of your students participate in. (Iowa Standard 1, criteria e)
_____ Create a rubric to assess an activity or student project and use it to evaluate the students’ work. (Iowa Standard 5, criteria a, c, & d)
_____ Use the computer to research a unit/lesson you’re going to be teaching. Look for possible supplement material or a lesson plan or activity ideas for your unit/lesson. (Iowa Standard 4, criteria d, f)
_____ Visit with a mentor teacher about the mentoring process and his/her responsibility working with beginning teacher. (Iowa Standard 8, criteria a)
_____ Visit with a counselor in the building about his/her job and role in working with students and classroom teachers. (Iowa Standard 8, criteria e)
(Updated: .8.10 2004)
Mid-term Conferences
The mid-term conference is a three-way conference between the student teacher, the cooperating teacher and the University supervisor.
Depending on how quickly the student teacher has taken over some responsibilities in the classroom, the mid-term conference will occur sometime between the end of the third week or mid way through the fifth week. Although the mid-term is held about half way through the 8-week placement, it is understood that a bulk of the student teacher’s experiences will occur in the last half of the placement. Therefore, it is expected that the student teacher will have had limited opportunity to demonstrate skills and competencies in many areas at the mid-term conference.
Prior to the mid-term conference, both the student teacher and the cooperating teacher are asked to complete the mid-term evaluation on P. 42 of the student teacher handbook. (This should be copied from the handbook). The student teachers are asked to use the rubric on p.66 of the handbook to help them complete their evaluation form. You may use the rubric or any of the other evaluation guidelines provided to complete your evaluation. At the time of the mid-term conference, we will primarily focus on the student’s evaluation. None of the evaluation forms are official. I usually pick them up, but no formal documentation is generated at the time of the mid-term conference.
We should plan on the mid-term conference lasting about 30 minutes.
Prior to the final conference:
The cooperating teacher prepares a draft of the final evaluation and the narrative. If more than one cooperating teacher worked with the student teacher during the placement, a couple of options are possible. Each cooperating teacher can write his/her own evaluation and complete the evaluation form. In those cases the final conference would be held with all parties and both final evaluations would be included in the student teacher's credential file. Or the cooperating teachers can collaborate on one evaluation form and one narrative. When one evaluation is used for two cooperating teachers, sometimes both cooperating teachers' signatures appear on the final evaluation and sometimes just the lead cooperating teacher's signature appears.
Final Conference
The final conference will be held during the last week of the placement and is a three-way conference involving the student teacher, the cooperating teacher and the university supervisor. We should allow about 30 minutes for this conference. The UNI Student
Teacher Handbook, pages 81-83, is devoted to the final evaluation procedures. Prior to the final conference, each cooperating teacher is asked to complete a final evaluation form (p.85) and to write a narrative. To help clarify the categories on the evaluation form, please refer to the Student Teaching Evaluation Guide Expanded Guidelines (pp. 49 –63) or the New Rubric Assessment Guide (pp. 64-80). If you use the rubric, a rubric assessment form is available at the end of the book in Appendix J (pp.105-104). Either of these assessment guides can be used to help fill out the final evaluation form (p.85). You may find it easier to copy the final evaluation form from the handbook. The rankings of the student teacher should be made in comparison to other student teachers and to the level of expertise a student teacher should demonstrate. It is important not to compare the student teacher to yourself or other experienced teachers. The narrative should be written or typed on a separate sheet. As the handbook suggests, the narrative should be consistent with the rankings on the evaluation form and should provide more specific information about the student teacher’s experiences, strengths, and needed areas of growth. A six-paragraph format is suggested on p. 82 of the handbook, but your narrative may vary from that format and may be more or fewer paragraphs. The 400-500 word suggested length is only meant as a guideline. Sample narratives are included in this Supplemental Guide as a model for your narrative. (p. 9-11) Because additions and editing may take place on the final conference, a “clean” copy is not required.
The UNI supervisor will review the final narrative. The supervisor will have the right as well as the responsibility to edit, as deemed appropriate, for style and/or length and to supervise the preparation of the final copy. The final narrative will not change in regards to content after the final conference. If the University supervisor wants to make comments that are substantively different from what you say, the supervisor may add his/her own paragraph(s) to the narrative, and this will appear as a separate section of the final evaluation report.
After the final narrative has been reviewed and agreed upon at the final conference, you’ll be asked to electronically send a copy of the narrative to LaDonna Lines (lines@marshallnet.com). The final evaluation and narrative are transmitted to the University electronically, and this process is much easier with an electronic copy of your narrative. This can be sent as an attachment to an email, or “cut and pasted” directly into an email message to me. Your student teacher should be able to assist in this process if necessary.
UNI students will manage their own credential files. Each student teacher will decide individually whether or not to include the final evaluation in his/her credential file. Our goal is to provide a good final evaluation. “Good” to us means honest, comprehensive, informative, and consistent with the experience the student has had in your classroom. If you feel that you need to mark any of the competencies/characteristics areas in the “below competent” or “unsatisfactory” performance levels, please notify your University Supervisor of your intent by phone or e-mail prior to the final conference. Your student teacher may ask for a letter of recommendation from you to be included in his/her personal credential packet. This letter could be your narrative printed on school stationary.
If you want to consult with me as you approach this task, please call LaDonna Lines (641-752-6823).
Cooperating Teacher Compensation:
Effective in the fall, 2001, UNI began offering an alternative method of rewarding the cooperating teachers that work with student teachers from UNI. Prior to this semester, each cooperating teacher was paid an honorarium of $100.00 for supervising an 8-week placement. (This amount is shared if two cooperating teachers share a student teacher for an 8 week placement) Beginning this semester, a cooperating teacher has three alternative payment methods he/she may choose. One choice is to receive a certificate of value from the University of Northern Iowa. This certificate of value can be redeemed by the cooperating teacher for the reduction of cost equal to one (1) graduate credit to any UNI graduate class. The current cost of one graduate credit is over $300. A teacher who chooses to be paid with a certificate of value will have three years to redeem the certificate. The second alternative payment is to receive the $100. The third alternative payment is to receive a ticket value of $125 for Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center events. These must be redeemed within one year of being issued. At the time of the initial visit, you will need to indicate how you wish to be paid for your services. Payment cards must be filled out with the cooperating teacher’s full name including full middle name or maiden name. Further explanation about the different pay options can be found on the back of the payment sheet. Currently, UNI asks that the payment sheet be completed and turned in at the time of the initial meeting.
Sample Narrative A
Bill Jones completed his first student teaching placement during the first eight-week term of the 2002 spring semester. He worked in a second and third grade combination room at
Little Town Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa, under the supervision of Jane Seymour. Little Town serves a culturally diverse enrollment of about 350 students with a range of low to moderate socioeconomic backgrounds. The second and third graders at Little Town are semi-departmentalized, and Bill taught science to all second graders. He also taught reading, language arts, and math to our homeroom second and third graders. This usually meant preparing two separate lessons for each of those subjects. The twelve third graders in our homeroom were above average students, while the twelve second graders were average to somewhat below average students. Bill also taught activities related to the Read-a-Million unit on the sea.
He worked with the third grade teachers in planning and implementing a winter field trip to Hartman Reserve Nature Center. During this field trip he directed a center in the lodge where he worked with the 60 third graders on a scavenger hunt of the area. He also participated in a half-day, all school skating party as a culminating activity for the Read-a Million Minutes reading project. Bill participated in faculty meetings, team leader meetings, team meetings, district science textbook selection meetings, school in-service training, Partners in Education meetings and student-led parent-teacher conferences.
From the beginning of his student teaching experience Bill became involved with students and assumed responsibility. Reading was taught through a whole language approach using the Macmillan series. In math, third graders were taught in a more traditional manner using the Health textbooks, while the second graders had not math textbook but focused on a hands-on, manipulative approach toward learning. The science lessons that were taught to our homeroom second graders as well as to the two other classrooms of second graders, centered on the FOSS (Full Option Science System) solids and liquids unit. This was an investigative, hands-on look at science. Bill did an excellent job in his teaching of this unit. His love for science was also seen in the way he incorporated it into the whole language units. He shared many of his own materials and lessons on the environment and ecology as it related to the third grade-reading theme. Many lessons involved pairs or small groups of students working together. Bill used a variety of teaching strategies to enhance student learning. Students were often actively involved in overt educational activities. He used a discovery approach toward learning. This type of learning was new for many students. Bill helped them develop a confidence in themselves, so they could use it effectively. Because this was a combination room, a lot of effort was spent planning activities for both grade levels. His lesson planning and knowledge of each grade level’s learning process greatly improved as he took control of the classroom. Discipline strategies were often discussed as he sought effective means for overcoming individual problems and group discipline.
Because of our use of student-led conferences, time was frequently allotted for student reflections and communication with parents. Boll learned to be very flexible, as there were many “extra” learning activities in progress at Little Town. He was willing to listen to suggestions and looked upon them as a way to help him improve. Bill Jones is a hard working, responsible person. He has a shy, pleasant personality and maintains a professional appearance. His dependability, organization, and friendliness make him an excellent teacher candidate who can be highly recommended for a teaching position. He will be a positive addition to any staff.
Sample Narrative B
Kim Brown completed her first student teaching placement during the eight-week period beginning January 18 through March 11, 2004, in sixth grade social studies and reading at Township Middle School in Waterloo, Iowa, under the supervision of Margaret Wilson. Township Middle School has a total enrollment of 665 students in grades 6-8. There are 233 students in the sixth grade. Ten percent of the students are classified as minority. Ms. Brown worked with 113 sixth grade students and taught four social studies classes and one reading class. Average class size was 30, which included one resource student and one BD student.
Kim’s teaching experience included teaching a social studies unit centered on the
Canadian provinces and territories in a cooperative learning setting, and a unit in reading focused on the theme; Finders and Seekers. She exhibited a high ability in thinking through and planning teaching and learning activities, and she was excellent at analyzing and improving her teaching strategies to better accommodate the variety of learning styles within the classroom. For example, she introduced the book, A Night to Remember by Water Lord and involved the students in analyzing the diagram of the Titanic and personalized the reading by having students journal as if they were a passenger or a crewmember. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Kim has shown interest in and attended a Team-leader Council meeting, attended and participated in faculty in-service, team meetings, and a teacher work day as well as handling supervision duties and participating in parent-teacher conferences. She also took the students on a field trip to the Junior Art Gallery for an exhibition on sound.
Kim began establishing a positive rapport with the students through learning games and activities. She used a modified form of assertive discipline as an approach to handling classroom management, which was highly effective. Students quickly learned that Ms. Brown was an effective and caring disciplinarian.
Kim has shown continued growth in the area of written communication skills. With practice, she can perfect the skill of writing on the blackboard and/or overhead projector.
She is making a conscientious effort each day to improve the quality of these skills. Ms. Brown exhibited a great deal of dedication, enthusiasm and desire in becoming an educator. She arrived an hour early and stayed late almost every day of the eight week experience. She is friendly and immediately established a positive rapport with the teaching team as well as with other building staff members. Her sense of humor was a nice addition to staff and students alike. She was quick to self-evaluate and to make any necessary changes in presenting materials to students. She was very open to suggestions and willing to be very flexible with her teaching styles, duties and responsibilities, and scheduling. She always performed in a professional manner when working with students, staff, or parents. Kim was especially talented in proactive and conflict resolution.
Based on personal growth and professional development throughout the student teaching experience, I believe that Kim Brown will make an excellent classroom teacher in the middle school setting for any school district that may select her as a member of their staff.
Letter of recommendation
Because students are managing their own credentials, a student teacher can choose whether to include the final student teacher evaluation in his/her credentials files. Your student teacher may ask that you write a letter of recommendation to include in his/her credential file. Although the content of the letter and the content of the final evaluation narrative may be similar, you may want to modify the format of the narrative for the letter of recommendation.
Supervisors Visits and Observations
The supervisors’ visits and observations provide another set of feedback information for the student teacher. The supervisor is able to monitor the growth and development of the student teacher over the whole 16-week student teacher semester. Every effort is made to observe the student teacher in a variety of teaching roles and situations through the semester. Ideally, every student teacher is observed 3 times by a University Supervisor in each placement. Occasionally, circumstances only allow two observations in a placement. If the situation requires, the supervisor may observe the student teacher more than 3 times in a placement.
Particularly in the early part of the placement, the supervisor will visit with the cooperating teacher to make sure that the student teacher is making an adequate transition to the role of the teacher and meeting the expectations of the cooperating teacher early in the placement. The supervisor would like to have the opportunity to visit with the student teacher after each observation to review the lesson and to discuss the student teacher’s progress. The cooperating teacher is welcome to join those post observation discussions if the schedule allows it; but sometimes that is not possible.
The student teacher will always know when his/her University supervisor is coming to observe, and he/she is expected to communicate that schedule to you. Any time you have a concern regarding the performance of your student teacher or the professional conduct of your student teacher, don’t hesitate to contact the University supervisor. Any serious problems need to be addressed as soon as possible; don’t wait for the University Supervisor to make their next observation to raise a serious concern.
Ideas for getting started with your student teacher
The initial few days with your student teacher are often important to help the student teacher become familiar with your classroom, the building and the routine of the school.
Since the student teacher is beginning mid-way through the year, sometimes it can be difficult for him or her to feel a part of the school; hopefully, this transition can be made as smoothly as possible.
Make them feel welcomed
It is always encouraged that a student teacher be given his/her own desk or workspace and an adult chair in the room. If these are ready for the student when he/she arrives, then it makes a favorable impression on the student teacher. Depending on the age of the students, your class(es) should be prepared that a student teacher is coming and made clear what his/her role will be in the classroom. Be sure to introduce the student teacher to each class.
Get the student teacher orientated to the building :
Provide them with the tools to be successful (Gathering these materials beforehand and sharing them the first day is helpful)
___ Student teachers should have copies of students' text or, if available, teacher copies of the text.
___ Provide the student teacher with any school handbooks, polices and procedures that they will be expected to know and follow.
___ Provide the student teacher with copies of the classroom rules, procedures, and grading procedures.
___ Share with the student building schedules, schedules for late arrivals and early dismissals fire/tornado procedures, and weather delay or school cancellation procedures.
___ Share with the student teacher current seating charts and/or class lists.
___ Share with the student teacher any pertinent personal information on any student (IEP's, dietary or medical needs, etc.)
___ Share with the student the district/state benchmarks that are being used
___ Share with the student any syllabus, or curriculum guides
There may be other items unique to your district, grade level, or subject area that the student would benefit reviewing.
Guided Observations
The first few days of the placement the student will be observing your teaching and classroom. These following observation ideas are meant as suggestions so that the student teacher is gaining as much as possible from this observation time and will also provide discussion material for you and your student teachers. Not all of the suggestions are applicable for all grade levels and there are many other observation topics not listed that are specific to your teaching situation you may want to suggest to your student teacher. Additional ideas are on page 98 of the handbook.
[This document was created by Tom Blaine, NE Iowa coordinator, and adapted to individual centers by the regional coordinators.]