Clinical Teaching Orientation

1. Clinical Teaching Orientation January 16, 2019

2. Agenda • 8:30-9:30 Welcome and Introductions • Dr. Beth Garcia and Gilbert Antunez • Education Credit Union • Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE) • 9:30-10:30 Program Expectations and Forms • 10:30-10:45 Break • 10:45- 11:30 Program Expectations and Forms • 11:30-1:00 Lunch (on your own) • 1:00-2:30 Law Seminar • Dr. Eddie Henderson; Dean, College of Education and Social Sciences • 2:30-2:45 Break • 2:45-3:45 ISD Panel Discussion • Pampa, Amarillo, Borger, Canyon, Hereford, Dumas • 3:45-4:30 Meet with Field Supervisors • 4:30-5:00 Wrap Up/House Cleaning – Q&A

3. Important Dates

4. Important Dates • Jan 16th: Clinical Teaching Orientation • Jan 17th: Clinical Teaching Seminar 1 • Jan 18th: Clinical Teaching Seminar 2 • Jan 22nd: First day of clinical teaching • Mar 19th: Career Services - ISD evening reception • Mar 20th: WT Educator Expo (morning) Safety/Violence Seminar (afternoon) • May 10th: Last Day of Clinical Teaching • Important: check WT emails all semester

5. Expectations for Clinical Teaching

6. Goodbye Student, Hello PROFESSIONAL! • Let’s talk about the change in mindset you should be experiencing: • You are no longer a student, you are now a professional. • You are on a semester-long interview! • Professional dress is an absolute must, except on campus-approved dress up days. • Your conduct on social media will be one of the first things potential employers look at. Now is the time to start cleaning your electronic “house”. • Clean up voicemail messages that are childish or feature music are considered unprofessional. • Demonstrate professional written communication. Use spell check and look for incorrectly used words like “its” and “it’s”; “principal’ and principle”; etc. • Who you are outside of school will be a reflection of who you are in school. If you feel embarrassed don’t wear it. Parents will view you as a teacher 24/7.

7. Your Relationship with the Teacher • Accept the fact that the Cooperating Teacher is the authority for deciding what you will and will not do in the classroom. • Respect the teacher’s years of experience and dedication to the field. • Put simply, if you damage the relationship with your cooperating teacher and your placement falls through, you will not finish clinical teaching. • Should this occur, your only option would be to graduate non-cert and possibly go through PACE for certification. • You represent yourself and WT at all times! • You want to be able to use your cooperating teacher and principal as a reference. Give that careful consideration. • Sometimes employers will call us for a reference. Make sure WT can give you a good one!

8. Expectations During Clinical Teaching: • Be prepared and ON TIME. • ON TIME means being there before you are supposed to be, not sliding in two seconds before the determined time. • If your Cooperating Teacher is at school, you should be too. • Prepare lesson plans in a timely manner and present them for approval by the Cooperating Teacher. • Be fully accommodating to the schedule of your Cooperating Teacher and Field Supervisor when scheduling conferences • Talk with your Cooperating Teacher regularly about your progress and your areas of growth. • Do not be afraid to ask questions, admit frustrations, or seek guidance from the lead teacher. Take full advantage of the opportunity to learn from them! • Whatever duties your Cooperating Teacher has, you should be doing as well, including faculty meetings, Open House, game duties, etc.

9. Expectations During Clinical Teaching: • APPEARANCE: Dress like a professional. Clothing should be neat, clean, free of wrinkles, and should ensure modesty. The way you dress will indicate to others how you want them to treat you. • ACTIONS: Be pleasant, be polite, and be a part of the team! Stay calm, stay professional, and SMILE! Plan ahead for the inevitable challenging moments. Have a plan for managing your emotions. • ATTITUDE: Be sure you separate personal from professional. Be flexible, and be happy to be where you are! You are one step closer to fulfilling your dream! Demonstrate energy, excitement, commitment, integrity, helpfulness, and care for others. • REPUTATION: Now is when you start building a reputation for yourself. If you generate a negative perception about yourself on one campus, the whole district will eventually know about it. If the district that you completed clinical teaching doesn’t want to hire you permanently, other districts will wonder why

10. Expectations During Clinical Teaching: • PROFESSIONALISM: • Respect confidentiality and ethics. Never talk about a student unless it is with your Cooperating Teacher. • Avoid gossip, slander, and school politics. Beware of teacher’s lounges and teacher lunch tables. Sometimes they are places of negativity. • Admit when you’ve made a mistake. Commit yourself to doing better next time. • Support your Cooperating Teacher and “have their back” – even if you disagree with them. After all, when you have your own classroom, you can do things your way. • Be able to take constructive criticism, and don’t take it personally! The intent of CT is to improve. You can’t be perfect the first week and expect to get better.

11. Expectations During Clinical Teaching: • PREPAREDNESS: • When you are responsible for lessons, activities, and grades, be someone that can be counted on for timeliness. • Be creative, be resourceful, and be prepared. • It is important to be flexible when there are unforeseen circumstances that arise that make adjustments necessary. There is never an excuse for not being prepared for what you know to expect. • Plan ahead and be sure all of your materials are ready before the day of your lesson. • Though it may be tempting, NEVER take it upon yourself to tell the cooperating teacher what he or she is doing “wrong”. • KNOW THE MATERIAL: don’t teach them all you know, but know ALL you teach!

12. Communication • Listening: is more important than talking. Always. • Speaking: projection, enunciation, and volume conveys all types of emotion, as well as your expectations. • Writing: must be grammatically correct, with no misspellings! Pay special attention to these things on bulletin boards, in correspondence with coworkers, letters home, etc. Use a proofreader! ALL CAPS IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION MEANS YOU ARE YELLING AT YOUR RECIPIENT! So does red type (unless you are stressing an urgent issue).

13. Communication • DO NOT email the office and then two hours later call to tell us, we haven’t answered email. Allow at least 24 hours for a response. • The call and email volume is overwhelming some days. If you haven’t heard back from us in 48 hours, email again. • The same is true for the rest of our office. • Your patience is much appreciated! • If there is a problem between yourself and your cooperating teacher, you call US and YOUR FIELD SUPERVISOR first!! • Never ever try to handle an adversarial situation without reaching out to us.

14. Expectations for Courtesy • At least twice during your clinical teaching, thank you notes should be sent to your: • Cooperating Teacher • Campus Principal • Asst. Principal • Curriculum Staff • Grade Level Instructional Staff with whom you work closely

15. Attendance • Monday through Friday • You arrive when the teacher arrives, and depart when the teacher departs. • You show up, whether you are teaching that day or not! • Tardiness to school and returning from lunch is unacceptable. • Chronic attendance problems will result in extended student/clinical teaching and/or a failing grade for clinical teaching. • No “days off” because you haven’t missed days. Missed days must be made up, regardless of the reason for the absence. • You are expected to attend staff development days. • Dr. Garcia and I am the final authority in determining whether you will be extended the opportunity to make up days. • There is a form for documenting absences and the days you made them up. The cooperating teacher must sign this form.

16. Teachers’ Expectations • Are that you will: • Be on time or early • Be willing to listen to critique • Be willing to participate • Be well prepared for lessons • Be able to manage the class • Be able to communicate expectations, concerns, and needs

17. Past Concerns • Lack of lesson preparation • Lack of lesson planning knowledge • Failure to participate in all duties • Lack of communication with supervisor • Lack of communication with cooperating teacher • Failure to accept responsibility • Failure to participate in professional meetings • Clinical teacher corrects, questions, or advises cooperating teacher

18. A Word of Warning • Sometimes clinical teachers will be offered employment in the campus or district in which they student taught. This is not always the case! • DO NOT assume that a successful clinical teaching experience means that you will be hired on where you are. • However, do remember that your professionalism and performance in clinical teaching is more powerful in helping you to find future employment than a successful interview. • It is not too early to start sending out resumes and cover letters.

19. Weekly Progress Reports

20. About the Progress Reports… • It is to be completed BY YOU (not the cooperating teacher) in the CRAFT, with input and feedback with your cooperative teacher. • It is aligned to the T-TESS goal setting conference expectations, as well as the T-TESS post conference and summative conference expectations. • In those conferences, you will be expected to do the majority of the talking. Get ready to discuss what you do, how you do it, and why! • The progress report is a great warm up for what you’ll experience in the field.

21. Submissions by your Cooperating Teacher

22. Submissions by Your Cooperating Teacher • 1st Formative Evaluation – February 8 • 2nd Formative Evaluation – March 8 • Summative Evaluation – May 3

23. Reminders

24. Reminders: • You are responsible for reading and understanding the Clinical Teacher’s Handbook, as well as the course syllabus, and for checking WT emails. • You will follow the calendar of your assigned campus. Any days missed by you (or the campus), for any reason, must be made up after clinical teaching. • You still have responsibility to WTAMU in that you: • Stay in communication with the Office of Teacher Prep to be sure all course work and documentation is in order • Pay tuition and fees on time to avoid being dropping from CT • Attend all required meetings and activities • Work with the Cooperating Teacher regarding dates, classes, and objectives

25. Self-Care • Clinical teaching is stressful and physically taxing! • Be sure you are taking multi-vitamins, especially vitamin C! • Keep your hands clean by washing them frequently and using hand sanitizer. • Get plenty of sleep! Plan your days in such a way that you are still able to get the amount of sleep that is best for you.

26. Liability Insurance • Is provided for Clinical Teachers by WTAMU • Is something you should never go without after your Clinical Teaching! • ATPE and TCTA both have liability insurance programs, and there are other teacher’s organizations that offer coverage as well.

27. Good Luck! Smile, Have Fun, and Learn Something New!