Field Supervisor Selection and Support

Selection

Graduate Coordinator (SZB 406, 471-5942) coordinates the field supervisor 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 field supervisor for your cohort:

• Begin looking at the applicants well in advance of the semester in which you need the field supervisor(s).  This gives you a broader selection pool.  Field Supervisors of interns (semesters 1 and 2 of the PDS) typically supervise 25 students for a 50% appointment.  Field Supervisors of final semester student teachers generally facilitate 10 students for a 50% appointment.  More experienced field supervisors 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 student teachers) and be an experienced UT field supervisor.
• His/her teaching letters of reference should be strong.
• If you are a new coordinator, the applicant should be an experienced UT field supervisor.
• Contact the applicant for an interview.
• Conduct an interview.
• Be sure that the field supervisor 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 field supervisor).  It is important to know, and to clearly convey to your field supervisor, 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 field supervisor 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 field supervisor’s reliability for these appointments to run smoothly.
• Let the field supervisor know when you plan to meet with him/her to regularly discuss written documentation of appointments and observations.  The field supervisor should take the cooperating teacher’s regular written observations to these meetings, as well.
• Remind field supervisors that, in addition to your support, they will meet with the Field Supervisor Discussion Group several times during the semester to network with other field supervisors and the office of Education Services.

Support

The two main sources for field supervisors to receive support are their cohort coordinators and the Education Services office. 

When asked about what a coordinator who provides good support looks like, some of their descriptors were “collaborative”, “collegial”, “accessible”, “organized”, and “approachable. 

They said that they needed support from Education Services in providing them with the following:

• Fellow mentors,
• Having easy-to-use Web-based materials
• Receiving training on the assessment instruments
• Continued training on building reflection conversations with their preservice teachers. 

Our goal is to ensure that these supports are in place for our field supervisors so that they will have the necessary tools for training our future teachers.

Occasionally, a field supervisor needs extra support in dealing with a challenging situations dealing with student, cooperating teacher, or school administrator.  In the case of the latter two, the coordinator should immediately intervene in an endeavor to mediate to a positive resolution. 

In the case of a challenging student situation, the field supervisor should be given the following guidance:

• Begin documentation as soon as a problem arises.  Keep copies of records from the beginning of a problem.  We cannot support termination decisions that are made late in the semester when the student has not had an opportunity to receive additional field supervisor support in identified growth areas, and has not had sufficient time to improve in these areas. Keep dated and scripted notes of all telephone and informal conversations, as well. 
• Collect documentation from the cooperating teacher.  This should include evidence of support, as well as documentation of performance.
• Be sure to listen to the perspectives of everyone involved in the situation so that you will have the “big picture.”
• Every suggestion made to the student should be founded in written behavioral performance program expectations (i.e., criteria on the Formative and Summative Assessments, written policies and procedures guidelines, written expectations, or assignments on a course syllabus). This is crucial if the problem continues and leads to possible placement termination.
• Involve the coordinator immediately.  If there is enough behavioral teaching performance documentation, the coordinator may decide to place the student on an Individual Performance Plan (Link to Individual Performance Plans Web Page).
• The field supervisor may not construct the IPP; this is the responsibility of the coordinator. The role of the field supervisor and the cooperating teacher is to provide support and documentation in the identified weak performance areas.
• The director of Education Services must review the IPP before it is introduced to the student.
• The coordinator should call a three-way conference with the field supervisor, and the student to discuss the terms of the IPP.
• The cooperating teacher should be informed of the IPP and asked to continue support and documentation.
• The field supervisor will provide needed support, monitor the IPP, and frequently report the progress to the coordinator.
• The coordinator makes the final pass/no pass decision about successful completion of the field experience.
• Regular communication about the student’s IPP progress must be maintained with the director of Education Services.