CoTE recognizes that cooperating personnel have a primary responsibility to the students they serve. It is important, however, that clinical experiences afford candidates an opportunity to reflect upon and evaluate his/her educational practice as well as cope with the responsibility of teaching. With this in mind, responsibilities of cooperating personnel are the following:
1. To orient the candidate to the total school setting, including any safety concerns, school policies, and duties or responsibilities of the faculty;
2. To help the candidate understand his/her role as it relates to his/her teaching assignment and the total school program and to define the extent of his/her responsibility and authority;
3. To discuss the district program with the candidate so that he/she will understand classroom activities in relation to immediate and long-term teaching goals;
4. To provide opportunities for the candidate to gain experience in management of regular school duties as soon as advisable and with as much initiative and responsibility as the situation will permit;
5. To provide an opportunity for full management, including preparation, instruction, and evaluation, for a sufficiently long period to provide a representative total teaching experience;
6. To work with the University supervisor in guiding the progress of the candidate throughout the field experience;
7. To cooperate with University personnel to assure that academic assignments/requirements are completed;
8. To evaluate the candidate's progress on a continuing basis, gathering and recording information for the following:
- Regularly conferring with the candidate for purposes of analysis, feedback, and guidance;
- Providing data and evidence in writing for the University supervisor to use in determining the candidate's grade;
9. To serve a model and information source, helping the candidate improve teaching skills, strategies, student-teacher rapport, and understanding of both cognitive and affective aspects of teaching.