Educator Preparation Field Experience Overview
Rio Salado's Educator Preparation Program actively seeks to combine course content with "real world" application through required school observations and interactions in Pre-K-12 classrooms. Field experiences are a critical component of the Educator Preparation Program. These experiences are a required component of specific classes and cannot be waived or substituted with previous experience.
Instructional Requirements
- Field experience hours are based on credit hours and outlined per course.
- Field experience is not offered between mid-March and mid-August.
- Requests can be made once enrolled in a qualifying course.
- Placements may be requested based on location and school type.
- Fingerprint clearance/background check is required.
- Students must check their program plan for required hours.
- Candidates already employed in a school may use their own classroom with approval.
Components
The Rio Salado College Online Educator Preparation Program has a critical field experience component embedded in the program that allows the teacher candidate practical, hands-on classroom experience; this is in addition to the culminating student teaching experience.
To become an effective teacher, one needs to do more than read and process information about teaching. An example of this concept would be teaching someone how to ride a bicycle by having them read about it; until you get on the bike and practice, you will not be able to perform this function effectively.
Field experiences may include up to four components depending on the coursework: observation, participation and reflection are embedded in every field experience, and teaching will be required depending on the specific course. The focus of each field experience will vary depending on the objectives of the course. The beginning teacher education courses have more emphasis on observing students in the class, while the focus in the methods courses is more directed to teaching.
The Mentor teacher assigned for each field experience will be required to complete an evaluation and/or verification of the teacher candidate’s time in the classroom.
Required Hours:
Level I (Foundational Courses)*
All Level I (Foundational) courses follow the same guideline related to the breakdown of observation and participation hours. The chart below outlines the breakdown based on credit hours.
*Exceptions are EDU221 and SPE422 which both required 30 hours of field experience.
| # of Credits | Total FE hours required | Breakdown | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Observation * | Participation * | ||
| 3+ | 20 | 5 | 15 |
| 2 | 15 | 3 | 12 |
| 1 | 10 | 2 | 8 |
Level II (Methods Courses)
All Level II (Methods) courses follow the same guideline related to the breakdown of observation, participation, and teaching hours. The chart below outlines the breakdown based on credit hours.
| # of Credits | Total FE Hours required | Breakdown | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observation | Participation * | Teaching * | ||
| 3+ | 20 | 4 | 12 | 4 |
| 2 | 15 | 3 | 9 | 3 |
| 1 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
For specific course requirements review the program plan for certification and click on the hyperlink for each course with a required field experience (FE).
Definitions:
Observation: Teacher candidates must watch a mentor teacher facilitate a lesson, interact with students, and monitor/adjust student engagement. Teacher candidates are expected to move around the classroom in order to experience an up-close look at the learning process with the student(s) under the supervision of the mentor.
Participation*: Teacher candidates must actively contribute to student learning. Participation hours may include but are not limited to: working with individual, small or large groups of students, planning with the mentor, and creating curricular activities/visuals. To fulfill the participation requirement, the teacher candidate will interact with the student(s) under the supervision of the mentor.
Teaching*: The act of teaching employs best instructional practices to introduce a new concept, skill or strategy to a group of students. Effective lesson planning skills, core content knowledge, instructional delivery, student engagement, and assessment are all critical teaching components. The teacher candidate is required to teach at least one of the three sequential lessons created for the 2A Signature Assignment to satisfy a portion of the teaching hours.
- Teaching time is calculated as the number of minutes it takes to deliver the entire lesson plan (from the anticipatory set to the closure).
- Most courses are only 50 minutes in length so it is appropriate to round up to one hour. Anything beyond 45 minutes can be rounded to an hour.
- The creation and preparation of the lesson plan is not considered "teaching time".
- Participation/Teaching hours must be focused on the specific course content area. The teacher candidate may design an integrated lesson which includes other content areas, if the lesson objective(s) align with the course content. For example, if the teacher candidate is taking a math methods course, it would be appropriate to create an integrated lesson which includes math and science content in order to maximize teaching time for students.
Note: Additional course content-specific teaching opportunities, beyond the lesson required as a part of the signature assignment, may need to be completed in order to satisfy the remaining field experience hours.
*Teacher Candidates Employed in their own Classroom:
Teacher Candidates that have their own classroom must observe a mentor outside of their own classroom and are required to document participation and teaching (when required) hours within their own classroom. Teacher Candidates should review the classroom requirements as outlined in the course syllabus to verify field experience needs as related to the grade level and content. The Mentor Teacher will validate completion of the Observation hours only.
