As you know, you are required by Mrs. Loughlin in the Office of Field Experiences to send a letter of introduction to your cooperating teachers.  You will send that letter before you make your phone call, so your teacher has a sense of you and your professionalism before you first talk. If possible, your first school visit and classroom observation should be scheduled for the next week.  In the first discussion you might talk about setting up a schedule for your next few visits, the curriculum your cooperating teacher uses, what the classes will be studying.  Typically, you will stay in the school for two or three class periods.  Strive for consistency across the classes.  For example, if the school is on a block 8 schedule, try to see the same classes on M/W/F one week and T/R the next.  By the time they start student teaching, many past students wish they had spent more time with their fourth quarter placement.  To avoid this concern, you will split your observation hours between the two placements this semester.  Doing so will help you become familiar with students in both places and prepare you for the entire student-teaching experience.

You will be documenting your field experience in your teaching journal, and you will use this chart to record your hours.  Print one chart for each placement.