Field Experience Policies

Field Experience Expectations for OU Teacher Candidates

Engage in mutually respectful, attentive, and active participation in the field site.

This fall, I am inviting YOU, an OU teacher candidate, to set high expectation for your professional learning by engaging in classrooms in ways that are mutually respectful, attentive, and active.

It is my hope that these dispositions prepare you and your colleagues to learn and grow as classroom professionals from resource perspectives that value the learning journey of each child and build the connections to schools, communities, and teachers that will support you as you progress towards your student teaching internship.

During the Level 3 field experience you will:

Engage in thoughtful classroom observation designed to help you and your colleagues inquire into the tacit knowledge that teachers use daily. Expert teachers make hundreds of decisions a day regarding student support and growth, instructional learning, academic achievement, routines and procedures, and school safety. Our goal is to make visible the often invisible emotional, intellectual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal labor that define the teaching profession in schools. To do this, we need the expertise and experience of cooperating mentor teachers who are willing to share their insights about decision-making, lesson planning, relationship building, and support of families and communities – all of which contribute to a young person’s positive growth and learning.
AND, you need to be willing to ask questions, be attentive in the classroom, and engage actively in the life of your field site.

We expect Level 3 teacher candidates to be in their field site classrooms 3-5 hours a week, for a total of 35 hours over 14 weeks. The specifics of classroom visits will be organized by partnership between individual students and their cooperating mentor teachers.

Mutually respectful:

Recognize that respect is given when people feel valued and visible. Make a concerted effort to demonstrate how much you value the opportunity to be learning in your school placement and with your cooperating teacher, their colleagues, and site administrators.
Demonstrate respect for all students and their families. Show respect through preparation and readiness to teach, your professional demeanor and dress, and care in recognizing who your students are from an asset-based perspective. Show respect through your recognition that everyone has something positive to bring to the classroom learning space.
Take seriously the importance of privacy and confidentiality. You are not to talk with other people about your field experience observations using any names or otherwise identifying information. Honor the privacy of your colleagues and students. This is a vital professional skill.
Recognize your role as an adult learner. Model learning so that other people reposition themselves as learners, too. At the same time, be confident to bring your knowledge and developing expertise to the classroom with you. Also, as an adult in the building you must be prepared to always report questionable circumstances to your cooperating teacher, site administrator, and/or OU course instructor.
Note: Under Title 10. Children Chapter 71 -Oklahoma Child Abuse Reporting and Prevention Act Section 7103, Teachers are considered Mandated Reporters of any suspected abuse of a child under 18. As such, please review the following Oklahoma State Department of Education

Attentive:

Be prepared to engage in observations in which you take notes, ask questions, and investigate the happenings in your school and classroom with a curious, open mind.
Be a descriptive observer who is prepared to describe what you experience, like “painting a picture” with words – details and examples.
Be a descriptive observer who does not judge. It is not your position to evaluate the classroom and school happenings at field sites. Bring your descriptions to class, and we will discuss our thoughts together.
When you are in the classroom, BE PRESENT in the classroom. Cultivate a mindful stance in which you are present for the students around you. Keep your phone and other electronics silenced so that you are not distracted by texts, etc., and can be 100% attentive.

Active:

Share your desire for instructional leadership opportunities. By mid-September, offer to teach a part of a lesson. Begin planning with your cooperating teacher. Offer to grade some papers together. Ask questions about the uses of materials and technology.
Offer to help. Be flexible. Listen actively. Provide honest limits about what you can do.