UT Facilitator: Selection and Support
Selection
Graduate Coordinator (SZB 406, 471-5942) coordinates the facilitator applications for the department of Curriculum and Instruction. The applicants are most often graduate students with teaching experience and strong references. The following are the Graduate Coordinator’s recommendations for finding the right facilitator for your cohort:
- Begin looking at the applicants well in advance of the semester in which you need the facilitator(s). This gives you a broader selection pool. Facilitators of interns (semesters 1 and 2 of the PDS) typically supervise 25 students for a 50% appointment. Facilitators of final semester apprentice teachers generally facilitate 10 students for a 50% appointment. More experienced facilitators are occasionally allowed to carry up to a 75% load.
- Read the applicant’s evaluation survey completed by the coordinator if they have facilitated for us in the past. This information may provide valuable information about their strengths and needs.
- When considering an applicant, try to make sure that his/her teaching level (elementary, secondary, all-level) and/or content area coincides with your students’ field placements. He/she must have at least three years of teaching experience in that area (if facilitating apprentice teachers) and be an experienced UT facilitator.
- His/her teaching letters of reference should be strong.
- If you are a new coordinator, the applicant should be an experienced UT facilitator.
- Contact the applicant for an interview.
- Conduct an interview.
- Be sure that the facilitator is clear about the official appointment dates and/or any adjustments that you might make to that (if your students begin and finish early, you may adjust accordingly for you facilitator). It is important to know, and to clearly convey to your facilitator, that there are often students who require extended amounts of time in the field as a result of absences, developmental needs, performance issues, or personal preference to gain more teaching experience. When this happens, the facilitator may spend 1-2 weeks longer in the field with that/those student(s).
- The interview is the time to discuss the importance of being on time and keeping appointments made with students and cooperating teachers. Everyone is on a tight schedule and will depend on the facilitator’s reliability for these appointments to run smoothly.
- Let the facilitator know when you plan to meet with him/her to regularly discuss written documentation of appointments and observations. The facilitator should take the cooperating teacher’s regular written observations to these meetings, as well.
- Remind facilitators that, in addition to your support, they will meet with the Facilitator Discussion Group several times during the semester to network with other facilitators and the office of Education Services.
Support
The two main sources for facilitators to receive support are their cohort coordinators and the Education Services office.
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