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• Cooperating Teachers

Cooperating Teachers

The Cooperating Teacher is responsible for the supervision of the candidate assigned to him or her. The cooperating Teacher provides professional experiences and helps in the data gathering process to assess teacher effectiveness of the candidate. The Cooperating Teacher shares expertise and mentors the candidate throughout the internship experience. He or she is a member of the team along with the candidate and University Supervisor which facilitates professional experiences for the candidate. The Cooperating Teacher has the following responsibilities:

• Attend the orientation meeting at CCU.
• Attend Mentor training sessions as required by the school district.
• Prepare his or her public school students for the arrival and involvement of the Intern.
• Inform the parents of the public school students of the candidate's presence in the classroom.
• Give the Intern your own contact information for routine and emergency situations.
• Orient the Intern to the school building and personnel.
• Assist the Intern in procurement of appropriate teaching supplies as available from the school (textbooks, paper, art supplies, recess equipment...)
• Discuss expected and appropriate behaviors for professional responsibilities.
• Provide the Intern with the school/grade level policies and procedures for handling routine tasks expected of all teachers.
• Provide the Intern with school emergency procedures.
• Provide the Intern with information on existing daily classroom management procedures.
• Provide the Intern with information on existing discipline procedures for the school as well as the classroom. Discuss any unusual discipline situations.
• Provide the Intern with student names and seating charts (including seating chart templates) to assist with rapid learning of student names.
• Train the Intern in the use of any machinery and technology in the building used for teaching and instruction.
• Develop a calendar with the Intern for assumption of teaching responsibilities (35 full-time teaching days are required).
• Schedule phase-in teaching responsibilities for the Intern to ease the transitions into full-time teaching for the Intern and the public school students.
• Schedule phase-out teaching responsibilities for the Intern to ease the transitions out of full-time teaching for the Intern and the public school students.
• Develop a calendar for the assumption of non-instructional duties by the Intern with phase-in and phase-out time frames.
• Provide assistance to the Intern in individual lesson planning and unit lesson planning.
• Share information about educational performance and individual diversities of the public school students.
• Share information about the population of the school and the community that is relevant to the teaching environment.
• Help the Intern to establish positive rapport with public school students, parents, and other school personnel.
• Keep a record of Intern attendance (see Appendix) to be submitted to University Supervisor.
• Review submitted lesson plans and give constructive criticism and suggestions for continual improvement.
• Formally observe the Intern not less than once a week and provide written feedback (more frequent observation is appropriate early in the internship).
• Complete Formative and Summative Evaluations in advance of these scheduled conferences. Collect documentation to support the assigned ratings for these evaluations.
• Complete a Candidate Dispositions form in advance of the scheduled Formative and Summative conferences. Collect documentation to support the assigned ratings for these Dispositions.
• Actively participate in the Formative and Summative Conferences. Offer specific strategies for the correction of any weaknesses and offer specific strategies for the reinforcement of strengths.
• Promptly inform the Intern and the University Supervisor of non-professional behavior.
• Promptly inform the Intern and the University Supervisor of any instructional skill concerns (content knowledge, lesson planning, oral presentation skills, writing skills, discipline management, routine classroom management task completion...).
• Remind the Intern to ask for a district level observation if he or she is hoping to apply for employment within the district
• Submit all information, written materials, and electronic forms required by the university.