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Teacher Candidate Quick Start Guide
This quick start guide is for 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.
During the first term, you will gather information about the school district, local community, and the classroom in which you’ve been placed.
In the first four weeks of the term, you should plan on spending approximately one and a half days per week in the cooperating teacher’s 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, you will spend all two and a half days (or 20 hours) in your cooperating teacher’s classroom.
There will be one week in the third month of the term when you will be in the classroom full-time. During this week, you 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
- Actively observe in the classroom for the required hours.
- Have weekly 15-minute meetings with your cooperating teacher to plan for the week, get informal feedback, and ask questions.
- Interact with learners on an informal basis (e.g. learn their names, begin to assess academic and social strengths and challenges, ask about their interests).
- Work with individual students and facilitate small group activities in a variety of content areas.
- Attend faculty meetings and participate in Professional Learning Community (“PLC”) meetings when possible.
Term 1 To Do’s
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Attend a start-of-term meeting with your cooperating teacher and university supervisor for an orientation on term 1 requirements. During the meeting, you should:
- Exchange contact information.
- 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 the cooperating teacher to actively observe in the classroom for the required hours.
- Set up a schedule with your cooperating teacher to observe in four diverse settings.
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Complete an informal observation with your university supervisor. During this observation, you should plan on interacting with students.
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Plan, teach, and assess a 3-5-day unit of instruction. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your cooperating teacher on the content, planning, and implementation of the unit.
- Complete tasks for the Mock edTPA during the unit.
- Upload lesson plans to TK20 at least five days prior to teaching a lesson.
- Coordinate with your cooperating teacher to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher before the lesson they’re observing to discuss your plan.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher after the lesson they observed to debrief and get feedback.
- Coordinate with your university supervisor to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
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Complete the PreCPAST form and participate in summative (end-of-term) consensus meeting with your cooperating teacher 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.
During the second term, you will continue your work from term 1 (usually with the same cooperating teacher) and complete edTPA requirements.
There will be two weeks in the last month of the term when you will be in the classroom full-time. During these weeks, you will teach a 7-10-day unit of instruction, including what’s required for edTPA (literacy instruction for elementary candidates and content area instruction for secondary candidates).
Term 2 General Responsibilities
- Be in the classroom for the required hours.
- Have weekly 30-minute meetings with your cooperating teacher to plan for the week, get informal feedback, and ask questions.
- Start taking on more planning and teaching responsibilities.
- Be involved as a professional in the school community (e.g. attend 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 cooperating teacher and university supervisor for an orientation on term 2 requirements. During 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 cooperating teacher to work in the classroom for the required hours.
- Discuss edTPA timeline (edTPA tasks must be completed by the end of the first month in term 3).
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Plan, teach, and assess a lesson for observation. As part of this, you should:
- Upload lesson plan to TK20 at least five days prior to teaching the lesson.
- Coordinate with your cooperating teacher to schedule a formal observation of the lesson.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher before the lesson to discuss your plan.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher after the lesson to debrief and get feedback.
- Coordinate with your university supervisor to schedule a formal observation of the lesson.
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Plan, teach, and assess a 7-10-day unit of instruction. As part of this, you should:
- Collaborate with your cooperating teacher on the content, planning, and implementation of the unit.
- Upload lesson plans to TK20 at least five days prior to teaching a lesson.
- Coordinate with your cooperating teacher to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher before the lesson they’re observing to discuss your plan.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher after the lesson they observed to debrief and get feedback.
- Coordinate with your university supervisor to schedule formal observations of one lesson in the unit.
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Complete the PreCPAST form and participate in summative (end-of-term) consensus meeting with your cooperating teacher and university supervisor. You should fill-out your PreCPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
Term 3 Overview
Required student teaching hours: Full-time for 10 weeks (all programs).
It’s your final term of student teaching! During this term, you’ll teach a 3-week unit of instruction around the middle of the term.
Term 3 General Responsibilities
- Be in the classroom full-time for 10 weeks.
- Have biweekly 30-minute meetings with your cooperating teacher to plan, get informal feedback, and ask questions.
- Take a leadership role in the daily planning, teaching, and managing of the class.
- Continue to be involved as a professional in the school community (e.g. attend 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 cooperating teacher and university supervisor for an orientation on term 3 requirements. During this meeting, you should:
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Go over the term 3 quick start guide for each role to make sure you all understand what’s expected.
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Set up a schedule with your cooperating teacher to work in the classroom for the required hours.
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Plan, teach, and assess a lesson for observation. As part of this, you should:
- Upload lesson plan to TK20 at least five days prior to teaching the lesson. View WOU Lesson Plan Template.
- Coordinate with your cooperating teacher to schedule a formal observation of the lesson.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher before the lesson to discuss your plan.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher after the lesson to debrief and get feedback.
- Coordinate with your university supervisor to schedule a formal observation of the lesson.
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Plan, teach, and assess a 3-week unit of instruction As part of this, you should:
- Confer with your cooperating teacher regarding the content of the unit.
- Upload lesson plans to TK20 at least five days prior to teaching a lesson. View WOU Lesson Plan Template.
- Coordinate with your cooperating teacher to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher before the lesson they’re observing to discuss your plan.
- Meet with your cooperating teacher after the lesson they observed to debrief and get feedback.
- Coordinate with your university supervisor to schedule a formal observation of one lesson in the unit.
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Complete the CPAST form and participate in formative (mid-term) consensus meeting with your cooperating teacher 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 cooperating teacher and university supervisor. You should fill-out your CPAST form in TK20 prior to the consensus meeting.
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Request a letter of recommendation from your cooperating teacher and university supervisor.
