Clinical Practice for Supervisors

Some general responsibilities for the college supervisor include being willing to:

• Serve as a liaison between and among the teacher candidate, the cooperating teacher, building administrator, and the Academic Coordinator.
• Discuss respective responsibilities with all persons involved in the Clinical Practice experience and inform same of the college's objectives and philosophy concerning Clinical Practice.
• Provide teacher candidate, cooperating teacher, and other college supervisor(s) (when applicable) with your name, phone number, email address, and hours when you may be reached.
• Introduce yourself to the principal and from time to time inquire about his/her impression of the teacher candidate.
• Assist the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher in the planning and administration of the Clinical Practice assignment.
• Assist the cooperating teacher and teacher candidate in filling out required college forms.
• Participate in open, honest communication with the cooperating teacher and teacher candidate.
• Assist the cooperating teacher in the supervision and evaluation process.
• Review requirements and see that college standards and state regulations are being met.
• Make sufficient visits to each teacher candidate to insure adequate supervision and evaluation.
• Complete appropriate evaluations of the teacher candidate.

Please familiarize yourself with the section of this handbook that describes the supervision of a struggling student teacher and outlines the steps involved in removing a student teacher from the student teaching placement.

College supervisors should conduct a first on sight visit in which they are to:

• Ensure that all contact information (email address, phone number, etc.) is accurate.
• Review the Timeline activity (officially the Timeline for Assuming Clinical Practice Responsibilities). Make suggestions and suggestions if necessary.
• Review and discuss all of the requirements for the teacher candidate and explain how you want the journal correspondence to be conducted
• Discuss lesson planning and what you expect to see when you come to observe a lesson. Where should the lesson plans be located and how detailed should they be. Also, discuss if you want lesson plans sent to you before the observation.
• Review the policies and protocol for absences.
• Discuss the evaluation forms you will be using during observations and what you will be looking for when observing. Ask the teacher candidate for input regarding any teaching competencies and qualities that he/she would like you to focus on during observations.
• Tell the teacher candidate how much time you will spend during each visit or observation and what will take place; make a tentative schedule for when you will make observations.
• Allow time to meet with the cooperating teacher to remind him/her of requirements and responsibilities.
• Be sure to ask the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher if they have any questions.
• Allow time to introduce yourself to the building administrator and to answer any questions.

The Clinical Practice experience is designed to be a growth experience. The primary players in this experience are the teacher candidate, cooperating teacher, and the college supervisor. Through the use of formal and informal observation, ongoing communication that includes suggestions and encouragement, and personal reflection, teacher candidates should show growth from the beginning to the end of the experience. Here are some helpful tips in making that happen:

1. Use a variety of data collection tools to collect objective data (e.g. video, lesson plans, observation, etc.).
2. Feedback should be as specific and objective as possible. Taking notes during an observation is highly recommended.
3. Clearly define one or two purposes for each observation (e.g. pacing of lesson and follow through, student participation, positive reinforcement, subject content.)
4. Use the following criteria to limit the number of concerns addressed at one time:
   • impact on the teacher candidate’s physical/emotional well-being
   • impact on the pupils’ learning
   • your perception of the teacher candidate’s ability to make changes
5. All observations should be followed by a conference before leaving.
6. During the early weeks of the experience, emphasize “growth not perfection.” Give frequent supportive feedback. Provide specific examples/suggestions.
7. Use self-disclosure to give examples of your own funny or unsuccessful experiences.
8. When a teacher candidate identifies a concern, assist in clearly defining the concern and encourage the teacher candidate to reconcile the matter. Offer suggestions.
9. Recognize that pupils’ responses are indicators of teacher effectiveness. Use comments such as: pupils appeared bored, restless, are engaged and/or actively involved in learning, etc.
10. Substantiate your comments with specific data and utilize as many examples as possible.
11. Look for patterns in teaching behavior. Critical judgment should be followed with specific suggestions for improvement and strategies for analyzing the effect on the behavior. The major function of supervision is to upgrade teacher effectiveness.
12. Emphasize the continuing aspect of self-evaluation and reflection by relating present remarks to past observations and providing a foundation for future observations.
13. All observation conferences should end on a positive note with a summary of current strengths and a plan for action for future attention.

During the semester, the college supervisor(s) will conduct all required supervision visits (i.e. instructional evaluations). During these visits, the goal is to provide feedback and support for growth. All WSC policies and procedures should be followed. In addition, utilizing the information received at the required assessment trainings is expected.

• An instructional evaluation is a task-oriented meeting during which there is an Observation Form (Formative Assessment) completed. The college supervisor will observe the teacher candidate presenting a lesson and provide written and verbal feedback afterwards.
• Instructional evaluations will be conducted approximately once every three weeks by the college supervisors.
• Review the lesson plan for the lesson you are observing.
• The college supervisor will take notes all aspects of the lesson observed (beginning time, lesson being taught, behavior/response of pupils during lesson, etc.). You may take notes on a laptop or using paper (provided by WSC). If using the paper version of the assessment, you still must enter the evaluation and general comments into the electronic assessment within Anthology Portfolio within a timely manner. For the formative, there is the option to select “Not Applicable.” The further along the candidate progresses, the less the “Not Applicable” option should be selected.
• Confer privately with the teacher candidate at the close of the observation.
• Make recommendations using concrete examples for ways to improve. During the post-observation conference discuss the lesson with the teacher candidate. (Did the lesson go as planned? If you were to teach the lesson again, what might you change? What do you need to review tomorrow?) Help the teacher candidate evaluate the lessons in a reflective manner.
• Confer privately with the cooperating teacher concerning the progress of the teacher candidate. (Inform the cooperating teacher about the information shared during the post-observation conference with the teacher candidate.)
• You will be sent an email each time an assessment is released that includes instructions and a direct link to the evaluation form located in our data management system called Anthology Portfolio. You can access the specific evaluation via that email or access all the evaluations by logging into MyWSC and then going to MyEportfolio to access all of your pending forms. Please note that evaluations are released on set dates, most likely before you need them. That is okay, simply log in and access the evaluations when you are ready to complete them. All forms can be found in the appendix.
• Supervisors Outside the 150-Mile Radius - you can only access the assessments from the emails. Be sure when you go into the assessment portfolio that you are on the proper form. Each email link is specific to a form and you may receive certain assessments before you have completed prior ones. If this happens, the best way to make sure you go to the right form is to click on the hamburger icon on the top left (main menu), then click on “Assess.” All of your pending assessments should appear. From there you can go to the proper one.
• Submit the completed Observation Form (Formative Assessment) with notes in Anthology Portfolio within 48 hours after completing the observation. Students can access the evaluation within Anthology Portfolio.
• Contact the Academic Coordinator immediately if the teacher candidate's work is not satisfactory. (If questions need to be answered during the on-site observation, don’t hesitate to phone the Academic Coordinator or Director of Education Services right then.)

• Summative evaluations are conducted at mid-term and at the end of the experience, following a consultation with the content college supervisor. If your teacher candidate is only doing half of his/her full experience with you before moving to a second placement, then you only need to submit a Summative Evaluation at the end of his/her time with you.
• Please keep your school administration informed regarding the teacher candidate's progress.
• The summative should reflect what has been observed, what has been read in the journal (reflections, other observations), and what has been learned through dialog with the other college supervisor (if applicable) and with the cooperating teacher. The summative evaluation should include all aspects of Clinical Practice, not just the performance on one lesson.
• You will be sent an email that includes instructions and a direct link to the evaluation form located in our data management system called Anthology Portfolio. You will be able to log on to that system as a guest user when it is time to complete the evaluation.

When a teacher candidate receives a low mark in any area on any of the evaluation forms, please document (in the space provided by that item on the form) the reason for the low assessment. Together with the teacher candidate, determine a strategy and timeline to remedy the area of concern. A recommended timeline would be one to two weeks for lower-level instructional skills and two to four weeks for upper-level instructional skills. If you do not see satisfactory progress towards meeting the deadline for remedying the area of concern, or if you have any questions about the process, please contact the Academic Coordinator or Director of Education Services immediately.

Effective communication between the cooperating teachers and the college supervisor(s) to discuss the progress of the teacher candidate, help plan for scheduled observations is crucial for the success of the candidates.

Please do not wait to notify the appropriate people if you have concerns about your teacher candidate. The sooner everyone is aware of problems, the sooner the problems can be addressed. If you feel and/or observe that something is not quite right, it probably isn’t. Of course it is necessary to allow the teacher candidate to make mistakes – this is a learning experience after all – but if the same mistake or concern comes up more than once, then college personnel should be notified.

You may wish to familiarize yourself with the part of this handbook that describes supervision of a struggling teacher candidate.

Contact the college supervisor or the Academic Coordinator, Dr. Christian Legler, at [email protected] or 402-375-7387 with any Clinical Practice concerns. We are here to provide support for this experience – to you and the teacher candidate

1. The Academic Coordinator is to be notified immediately when a teacher candidate does not appear to be progressing at a rate to allow for successful completion of the Clinical Practice experience.
2. The Academic Coordinator will notify the teacher candidate, cooperating teacher, building administrator, college supervisors, and Dean of Education regarding the unsatisfactory quality of the teacher candidate’s performance.
3. Information relevant for remediation of the teacher candidate will be sought from college records and college personnel, including (but not limited to) his/her academic advisor and former instructors.
4. Unless the situation demands that the teacher candidate be removed immediately, an improvement plan will be developed that identifies areas of needed improvement and strategies for implementation.
5. The improvement plan will be developed by the cooperating teacher, in consultation with the college supervisors, Academic Coordinator, and Director of Education Services, and presented to the teacher candidate. A copy of the plan will be given to the cooperating teacher, college supervisor(s), and the WSC personnel. The plan will include:
   • identification of areas where improvement is needed
   • specific strategies to implement improvement plan
   • specific outcomes desired and person responsible for validation of outcomes
   • a timeline for completion of outcomes
   • consequences of not completing the plan on time or adequately
   • date and signature of the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher
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6. During the period specified for demonstrating professional or classroom improvement by the teacher candidate, the college supervisor will evaluate the performance of the teacher candidate at least one full period each week. Written and oral feedback will be provided to the teacher candidate regarding his/her progress toward reaching the goals of the remediation plan. ALL interactions will be carefully documented, including major points of discussion, conclusions reached, and dates.
7. Possible outcomes from the steps outlined above are:
   • The teacher candidate may adequately meet the requirements of the improvement plan and be allowed to continue the Clinical Practice experience.
   • The teacher candidate may make significant progress toward meeting requirements, but may not complete all aspects of the plan. The Academic Coordinator may choose to either extend the experience at the same location or assign the student to a different location during the same or a subsequent semester. Should the experience extend beyond the end of the semester, an incomplete grade will be assigned until the experience is completed. Additional coursework may be required.
   • The teacher candidate may decide to voluntarily withdraw from Clinical Practice.
   • The teacher candidate’s rate of progress may remain unsatisfactory requiring the experience to be terminated. The decision to terminate will be made based on input from the cooperating teacher, college supervisors, building administrator, and Academic Coordinator. When a termination decision is made, a conference will be held with the teacher candidate. Personal or career counseling may be suggested.
   • Should the teacher candidate withdraw or be terminated from his/her Clinical Practice experience, he/she may be allowed a second chance in a subsequent semester. Pursuant to any new assignment, the teacher candidate must verify having had additional coursework and/or practical experiences in a learning environment that would increase his/her potential for success. The teacher candidate has two years from the semester of termination to attempt completion of his/her program, with the understanding that a second attempt at Clinical Practice is subject to the approval of the Dean of Education.

Download Student Teacher Improvement Plan Form (PDF)
Download Sample Improvement Plan (PDF)

For our Removal of a Teacher Candidate Policy, see the Policies and Procedures page.