Frequently asked questions

1. What am I supposed to do now? What does the University expect from me?

The student teacher needs to be oriented to your school and your class(es). He or she needs to know what your instructional goals are for the period while they are with you. Think about how you can introduce the student to taking over instruction. Maybe you can co-plan and co-teach or alternate teaching for a while before giving over full instructional responsibility to the student teacher.

Your student teacher needs a regular time to meet with you and get feed back about what’s happening.

We need to you participate in a mid-experience conference and give the student teacher written feedback on their progress. Your student teacher will likely ask you for a letter of recommendation at the end of the experience. See Clinical Experiences Handbook: Responsibilities of cooperating teachers

2. How do I get started?

Remember that you need to help your student teacher become oriented to your school and to your class. The responsibilities for cooperating teachers describe the range of topics you will want to cover. Here is a checklist you can assign your student teacher as one starting point.

If you are thinking about how to hand over instruction consider these tips for starting out a novice teacher.

3. How do I give feedback? Feedback on what?

The College of Education and Human Development has developed assessment tools to use for this purpose.  See Clinical Experiences Handbook: Performance assessment and evaluation.

One important role is for you to encourage your student teacher to reflect on his or her own teaching. Need ideas on how to do this? See Clinical Experiences Handbook: Context for reflective conferencing

Additionally, program areas will have specific questions and requirements.

4. Do I stay in the classroom with my student teacher?

This is something you have to determine. We have an agreement with your district for the placement of student teachers, but at all times you are responsible for what happens in your class. You should not leave a student teacher until you are confident of their ability to handle the class. In all cases, we expect that Cooperating Teachers will be onsite and easily accessible. You certainly may stay in the classroom if you prefer. Your building or your district may have specific policies regarding this, and we expect you will follow those policies.

For a related issue see our policy on use of student teachers as substitutes.

5. What goes into a letter of recommendation?

Basically, a letter of recommendation serves as a third-party introduction to the new teacher for a hiring official. They don’t have to be universally glowing to support the student, but they should give a clear picture of what the new teacher can do, and positive, encouraging, and specific letters will help the new teacher better than general or negative letters will.

We have guidelines for letters available here.

6. My student teacher just (insert your huge problem here). What should I do now?

If there are any safety issues at stake follow your building’s policy. Then, as soon as possible, call the supervisor, program area, contact, or clinical experience coordinator at the College of Education and Human Development. Here is our directory.

Depending on the nature of the problem you have a variety of options for immediate and longer term responses:

• You can take over instruction from the student teacher.

• You can meet with the student teacher briefly after the incident to explain what went wrong and describe what is necessary to do in the future to avoid similar problems.

• Working with the University supervisor, you can design a contract specifying the student’s performance and conduct to continue and succeed in the student teaching experience.

• You may call a case conference. This is a problem-solving, advising, and administrative process the college uses when there are progress issues in student teaching. If you are not willing or available to participate in a case conference, you may describe your concerns to the supervisor who will decide with you on the best course of action.

• You can remove the student teacher from your class, or the school building. Please work with your building administrator in making this decision. We want to be informed and involved as early as possible.

7. With everything that could go wrong, why would anyone want to have a student teacher?

Things usually don’t go wrong. In a typical year around 15 of our 450 student teachers have substantial problems in student teaching (3.33%). Other cooperating teachers have identified some benefits to having a student teacher:

“It’s forced me to reflect on my teaching even more. As I evaluate my student teacher, I am constantly finding things that I want to work on.”

“I have time to pull out kids who need extra help, which has strengthened my relationship with those kids in such a way that helps reduce behavioral issues… two plusses.”

“The student teacher has brought ‘fresh’ perspective and enthusiasm and it is catching!”

Revised October 2005