Second Placement (Secondary)

Thank you immensely for mentoring a teacher candidate through their final placement. You are providing an amazing gift to our future educators!

Second Placement Schedule:

Begins after winter break. Schedule after winter break leading up to spring break is:  Monday - Friday mornings (20 hrs / wk) After Spring Break-last day of school: All Day Mondays- Fridays (40 hrs / wk)

Secondary Teacher Candidates will follow an internship schedule Monday through Friday mornings that begins at the Cooperating Teacher’s contracted start time and stays half-days (without leaving in the middle of a period). Teacher Candidates are required to be in your placement 20 hours/week, attending 5 days a week

After Spring Break, Teacher Candidates will spend all day, Monday through Friday (40 hours/week) in a full time placement.

Internship begins with some observation and then quickly moves to teaching or co-teaching small lessons. This gradual release model of professional development works well to scaffold teacher candidates’ growth as an emerging teacher.

Starting after spring break continuing through graduation, internship is all day (8 hours), five days a week (40 hours/week). For the entire spring term, candidates should take primary responsibility for the planning and be the lead teacher and assessor for at least half of the classes/subjects in internship. For at least 3 weeks (many TCs will do 5 to 6 weeks), candidates will assume all the responsibilities of running a classroom (all classes/subjects). This includes full-day teaching (co-teaching is acceptable), planning, grading, parent communication, supervision duties, and school activity involvement. The culminating experience will be great preparation for moving towards their own classroom. Each experience will be unique to the needs of the class, the Teacher Candidate, and the Cooperating Teacher. (If secondary, candidates are not qualified to teach AP or IB classes alone. Candidates will be co-teaching for these classes, even during the three weeks.)

All Teacher Candidates in spring term will follow the Cooperating Teacher’s contract hours and OSU class schedule, flexing to match the contracted start-end time for teachers. The goal is to be in schools full time 40 hours / week, attending all 5 days a week. M-F.

Policy for Teacher Candidate Absences

Any school day that a TC misses because of an emergency or illness must be reported to you before 7:00 a.m. on the day they will be missing. However, we encourage our students to try to notify you well before 7:00 a.m (example: the night before) if at all possible. The manner of how the Teacher Candidate “reports” the absence to the Cooperating Teacher should be agreed on before the student teaching placement begins. Teacher candidates have a bank of excused absences to draw from for sick leave, emergency leave, or job search leave. These days are not for personal leave. TCs must log all absences and a short reason on the Monthly Log of Hours Calendar (ex: illness, job fair, job interview, family emergency, etc). This leave should not exceed 5 days during the first placement. 

Inclement Weather Policy

This is what we have shared with students regarding district closures and delays: 

During your placement, there may be times that the school district that you are teaching in is closed for inclement weather. On these days, you will not report to school. If your school is on a two-hour delay, please ask your Cooperating Teacher what time to report to school (often two hours later than normal, but not always). Please record a snow day/ school closure on your log of hours. These hours are not counted as part of your excused absences, as the closure is out of your control.

If you live in an area where the schools are closed due to weather, but you teach in a district where schools are open, you will not report to your school. The closure in your residing school district determines that it is not safe to drive. In this case, please reach out to your CT (Cooperating Teacher) and US (University Supervisor), and record a snow day/ school closure on your log of hours. These hours are not counted as part of your excused absences, as it is out of your control. If your residing school district is on a two-hour delay, please arrive when it is safe (likely two hours later) and reach out to your CT on what time you will to report to school.

The most important thing you can do is to maintain great communication with your CT and US. Giving them as much notice as possible will help them support you!

Observations and Evaluation:

Winter Term: Placement 2 (Part-time, M-F half days)

January:

February:

March:

SPRING TERM: Full time Placement #2 (M-F following contracted teacher hours)

April:

May:

June:

Second Placement

Teacher Candidates will begin in a part-time format  until winter break and then move to full days after spring break for the duration of spring term, at which time they are required to be at your school mirroring the hours required of you.  

Teacher Candidate will:

• Review all Part-time and Full-time Placement benchmarks with Cooperating Teacher. Establish mutually agreeable times for planning on a regular basis.
• Work with Cooperating Teacher to establish introductions with parents/guardians of students in classroom.
• Participate in parent conferences, if possible.
• Submit a completed Google Log of Hours at the end of the placement.
• Work with Cooperating Teacher to prepare classroom environment for students, establish assessment and management plans.
• Attend orientation activities, on-site seminars, and school staff meetings.
• Talk to Cooperating Teacher about special needs students in your classroom.  Review student files and attend IEP meetings if possible.
• Establish collaborative relationships with Cooperating Teacher and other colleagues at school site.
• Maintain a standard of professional ethics demonstrated through words and actions.
• Engage immediately in some regular classroom routines.
• Ask Cooperating Teacher to observe you informally while you teach and provide feedback on your teaching. Discuss the format/model for the Formal Observation Process with Cooperating Teacher and University Supervisor well in advance of first Formal Observation.

Oral Examination

All teacher candidates qualifying for the MAT degree must pass an oral examination. The examination is scheduled during the teacher candidate’s final term (mid-May for Spring). Your Teacher Candidate will be excused from your classroom for a ½ day for his/her oral exam at OSU-Cascades. This absence is in addition to their 5 days of allowed leave.