Second Year Clinic Placements
The purpose of the fall semester clinic placement in the second year is to provide the student with opportunities to focus on teaching in their chosen certification area, to work directly with a teacher who is skilled at teaching in the chosen certification area, to gather instructional ideas and materials, and to practice the development and delivery of instruction under the guidance of a certified teacher and a subject-specific specialist.
In the second year, students are assigned to clinic placements in their chosen area of certification and must spend at least six hours per week in the clinic site. How students meet the six hour requirement varies depending upon their specialization area. Elementary education and special education students spend the equivalent of a full day per week in the schools. Secondary education students, in contrast, ideally follow one class period for the whole week. If tracking a single period across the week is not possible, then some modified version of tracking a class across the weeks of a semester is designed to meet the six hour requirement (e.g., attending two classes on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule).
Students in elementary or secondary education may opt to remain in their fall placement for their student teaching semester. The arrangements for a full-year placement must be made with the clinic placement coordinator Catherine Smith, who will work with the clinic teacher to make sure that the placement will work for a full year. Because their certification is K-12, Special Education majors must be assigned to two different placements in their senior year in order to assure experience in both elementary and secondary schools.
Because this clinic experience is the last one before the IB/M students' student teaching semester, the more teaching experience the students get during this clinic experience the better. The amount of actual instructional time for which the students take responsibility varies greatly and is negotiated between the clinic teacher, the student, the seminar leader, and often the student's advisor or methods instructor.
Roles and Responsibilities of the Second Year Clinic Team
The general guidelines for clinic placements appear in a later section of the handbook. Please review them. Unique expectations of each clinic team member that apply to subject and grade-level specific clinic experiences in the second year are listed below.
IB/M students should take full advantage of the subject-specific grade-level clinic placement. This experience is the last opportunity students will have to get teaching experience before going out to meet the challenges of student teaching. Clinic teachers have been carefully chosen because of their knowledge and skill in instruction, classroom management, and content area expertise. Therefore, students who take full advantage of the opportunity can garner ideas and materials for the future.
Both clinic teachers and seminar leaders should be aware of the critical importance of the fall semester's clinic experience in the overall preparation program. IB/M students are now focusing on teaching in their area of concentration. They expect to obtain a teaching position much like the one in which they are working this semester. Clinic teachers and seminar leaders should focus on careful evaluation of performance as well as preparation, providing specific feedback, and assessing the teacher candidate’s grasp on what to teach, how to teach, and why.
In addition, seminar leaders, advisors, and methods instructors will be examining each student’s readiness to meet the demands of student teaching. IB/M students who do not seem ready to student teach are counseled with regard to their future in the program. Thus, the fall placement has a special importance in the preparation of the prospective teacher; it is described as a turning point by many students in the program.
