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Cooperating Teacher Quick Start Guide
This quick start guide is for the classroom teachers working with WOU students in the undergraduate and graduate teacher licensure programs.
Term 1 Overview
Required student teaching hours:
- Undergraduate, elementary: 2 ½ days per week.
- Undergraduate, secondary: 20 hours per week.
- Graduate, elementary: 4 hours per day.
- Graduate, secondary: 4 hours per day.
This is your teacher candidate’s first term of student teaching. During this term, they will need to gather information about the school district, local community, and the classroom in which they have been placed. Your time and energy with this process is greatly appreciated.
In the first four weeks of the term, the teacher candidate should spend approximately one and a half days per week in your classroom and one day per week observing in a total of four diverse settings. Examples of diverse settings include Title I, ESOL, Special Education, observing a counselor, and shadowing a specialist teacher (e.g. music, physical education, technology, art).
During the remaining weeks of the term, the teacher candidate will spend all their time in your classroom.
There will be one week in the third month of the term when the teacher candidate will be in your classroom full-time. During this week, the teacher candidate will teach a 3-5-day unit of instruction and have the opportunity to experience implementing edTPA expectations for the “Mock” edTPA.
Term 1 General Responsibilities
- Have weekly 15-minute meetings with your teacher candidate to plan for the week, provide informal feedback, and answer questions.
- Encourage your teacher candidate to interact with learners on an informal basis (e.g. learning their names, beginning to assess academic and social strengths and challenges, asking about their interests).
- Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to tutor individual students and to facilitate small group activities in a variety of content areas.
- Model various instructional techniques for your teacher candidate and discuss how you made decisions to select materials and strategies.
- Introduce your teacher candidate to school personnel (secretary, principal, assistant principal, department heads, media specialists, and counselors).
- Encourage your teacher candidate to attend faculty meetings and participate in Professional Learning Community (“PLC”) meetings when possible.
Term 1 To Do’s
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Prepare your classroom. For example, you should:
- Set up an adult workspace for your teacher candidate.
- Post the candidate’s name wherever yours is posted (e.g. outside the classroom door, on the front board, near your desk, on your desk, on the class website).
- View the cooperating teacher training.
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Attend a start-of-term meeting with your teacher candidate and university supervisor for an orientation on term 1 requirements. At this meeting, you should:
- Exchange contact information.
- Provide a tour of the school and classroom. Show your teacher candidate where to park, do work, eat lunch, use the restroom, and locate resources.
- Share school policies and “unwritten” rules with your teacher candidate (e.g. what to wear, how to interact with students, parents, and other teachers, what’s okay to share or not share on social media).
- Go over the term 1 quick start guide for each role to make sure you all understand what’s expected.
- Set up a schedule with your teacher candidate for them to actively observe in the classroom for the required hours.
- Allow the teacher candidate to interact with learners during the university supervisor’s informal observation.
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Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to plan, teach, and assess a 3-5-day unit of instruction. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your teacher candidate on the content, planning, and implementation of the unit.
- Coordinate with your teacher candidate to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
- Review the teacher candidate’s lesson plans, which the teacher candidate will submit in TK20 at least five days prior to the lesson.
- Meet with your teacher candidate before the lesson you’re observing to discuss the plan and offer suggestions.
- Meet with your teacher candidate after the lesson you observed to debrief and provide feedback.
- Complete a Clinical Observation Feedback Form in TK20 for the lesson you observed.
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Complete the PreCPAST form and participate in summative (end-of-term) consensus meeting with the teacher candidate and university supervisor. You should fill-out your PreCPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
Term 2 Overview
Required student teaching hours:
- Undergraduate, elementary: 2 ½ days per week.
- Undergraduate, secondary: 20 hours per week.
- Graduate, elementary: At least 4 hours per day.
- Graduate, secondary: At least 4 hours per day.
This term, your teacher candidate will plan, teach, and assess required lessons for their edTPA performance assessment. EdTPA is the nationally-normed performance assessment now required for all Oregon teacher candidates pre-licensure.
There will be two weeks in the last month of the term when the teacher candidate will be in your classroom full-time. During these weeks, they will teach a 7-10-day unit of instruction and complete edTPA tasks (literacy instruction for elementary candidates and content area instruction for secondary candidates).
Term 2 General Responsibilities
- Have weekly 30-minute meetings with your teacher candidate to plan for the week, provide informal feedback, and answer questions.
- Encourage your teacher candidate to take on more planning and teaching responsibilities.
- Continue to model various instructional techniques for your teacher candidate and discuss how you made decisions to select materials and strategies.
- Involve your teacher candidate in professional activities in the school community (e.g. faculty meetings, staff development days, PLC meetings, and student conferences).
Term 2 To Do’s
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Attend a start-of-term meeting with your teacher candidate and university supervisor for an orientation on term 2 requirements. At this meeting, you should:
- Go over the term 2 quick start guide for each role to make sure you all understand what’s expected.
- Set up a schedule with your teacher candidate for them to work with you in the classroom for the required hours.
- Discuss edTPA timeline (edTPA tasks must be completed by the end of April).
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Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to plan, teach, and assess a lesson for observation. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your teacher candidate on the content, planning, and implementation of the lesson.
- Coordinate with your teacher candidate to schedule a formal observations of the lesson.
- Review the teacher candidate’s lesson plan, which the teacher candidate will submit in TK20 at least five days prior to the lesson.
- Meet with your teacher candidate before the lesson to discuss the plan and offer suggestions.
- Meet with your teacher candidate after the lesson to debrief and provide feedback.
- Complete a clinical observation feedback form in TK20 for the lesson.
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Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to plan, teach, and assess a 7-10-day unit of instruction. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your teacher candidate on the content, planning, and implementation of the unit.
- Coordinate with your teacher candidate to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
- Review the teacher candidate’s lesson plans, which the teacher candidate will submit in TK20 at least five days prior to the lesson.
- Meet with your teacher candidate before the lesson you’re observing to discuss the plan and offer suggestions.
- Meet with your teacher candidate after the lesson you observed to debrief and provide feedback.
- Complete a clinical observation feedback form in TK20 for the lesson you observed.
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Complete the PreCPAST form and participate in summative (end-of-term) consensus meeting with the teacher candidate and university supervisor. You should fill-out your PreCPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
Term 3 Overview
During the third term, the teacher candidate will complete the required student teaching experience. They will be at the school full-time for 10 weeks.
There will be three weeks in May when your teacher candidate will teach a 3-week unit of instruction.
Term 3 General Responsibilities
- Have biweekly 30-minute meetings with your teacher candidate to plan for the week, provide informal feedback, and answer questions.
- Allow your teacher candidate to take a leadership role in the daily planning, teaching, and managing of the class.
- Continue to model various instructional techniques for your teacher candidate and discuss how you made decisions to select materials and strategies.
- Continue to involve your teacher candidate in professional activities in the school community (e.g. faculty meetings, staff development days, PLC meetings, and student conferences).
Term 3 To Do’s
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Attend a start-of-term meeting with your teacher candidate and university supervisor for an orientation on term 3 requirements. During this meeting, you should:
- Go over the term 3 quick start guide for each role to make sure you all understand what’s expected.
- Set up a schedule with your teacher candidate for them to work with you in the classroom for the required hours.
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Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to plan, teach, and assess a lesson. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your teacher candidate on the content, planning, and implementation of the lesson.
- Coordinate with your teacher candidate to schedule a formal observations of the lesson.
- Review the teacher candidate’s lesson plan, which the teacher candidate will submit in TK20 at least five days prior to the lesson.
- Meet with your teacher candidate before the lesson to discuss the plan and offer suggestions.
- Meet with your teacher candidate after the lesson to debrief and provide feedback.
- Complete a clinical observation feedback form in TK20 for the lesson.
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Provide the opportunity for your teacher candidate to plan, teach, and assess a 3-week unit of instruction. As part of this, you should:
- Confer with your teacher candidate regarding the content of the unit.
- Coordinate with your teacher candidate to schedule formal observations of one lesson in the unit.
- Review the teacher candidate’s lesson plans, which the teacher candidate will submit in TK20 at least five days prior to the lesson.
- Meet with your teacher candidate before the lesson you’re observing to discuss the plan and offer suggestions.
- Meet with your teacher candidate after the lesson you observed to debrief and provide feedback.
- Complete a clinical observation feedback form in TK20 for the lesson you observed.
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Complete the CPAST form and participate in formative (mid-term) consensus meeting with your teacher candidate and university supervisor. You should fill-out your CPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
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Complete the CPAST form and participate in summative (end-of-term) consensus meeting with your teacher candidate and university supervisor. You should fill-out your CPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
