Field Experiences

Students enrolled in the following courses: ED 170, ED 270, ED295, ED 330, ED 374, ED 378, ED 379 and several methods courses are required to complete a field experience. These experiences are integral components to the St. Olaf College Teacher Education Program and provide an opportunity to apply educational theory to real-world settings. Students are required to complete a minimum of 120 hours of field experience, 60 hours of which must be in a diverse setting.

• Field Experience Handbook. This handbook outlines the field experience expectations for students and host teachers.
• Northfield Background Check Form  This background check form goes directly to the Northfield School District and must be submitted before assisting in a school.
• Confirming Your Placement in Tk20. This link will take you to the Tk20 Directions page; you can see how to confirm your placement in Tk20.
• Field Experience Program Calendar Spring 2024
• Field Experience Goal Sheet. This paper form can be used to keep track of your field experience hours, however you will be asked to enter your hours in Tk20 at the end of your field experience instead of turning this form in (click here to follow directions for entering your goal sheet in Tk20).
• Field Experience Student Information Form. This form should be completed electronically and given to your host teacher at the start of each field experience. Save it and upload it to Tk20 as an artifact so you can simply modify it with each new field experience.
• Ed 379 January Term Student Information Form

Changes to Field Experience Requirements due to COVID-19 in Effect for Academic Year 2021-2022

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students in the class of 2022 must complete a minimum of 100 field experience hours prior to student teaching rather than 120 field experience hours.  Students in the class of 2022 must have field experiences at each required grade level; however, we will require a minimum of 10 hours rather than 20 hours.  Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis for students who cannot obtain at least 10 field experience hours at a required grade level.

Changes to Field Experience Requirements due to COVID-19 in Effect for Academic Year 2020-2021

For the Fall Semester, only licensure students enrolled in ED 330 will complete their field experiences. Students will be expected to follow all safety protocols outlined both by St. Olaf and by their schools, including monitoring their health each day before leaving campus, wearing masks at all times, and washing hands frequently.  However, to limit the number of volunteers we send into schools, students in all other Education courses will not have field experiences in the fall. Overall numbers of hours required will be adjusted based on the field experiences offered in each upcoming course.

For Spring Semester, students enrolled in Education courses with field experiences will complete a range of experiences, including in-person, virtual, and case studies using ATLAS. ATLAS (Accomplished Teaching, Learning and Schools) is an online (password protected) library of case studies showing National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) at work in their classrooms. ATLAS cases include a classroom video, accompanying written commentary, instructional materials, and indexing to teaching and learning frameworks. The videos show accomplished teaching in action. The teacher commentary highlights activities leading up to the lesson, analysis of what took place, and a reflection on what went well and what might be done differently in the future. Students will be asked to complete analysis and reflection tasks related to the cases they view. For information on setting up your ATLAS account, visit this link.