For Student Teachers

  • Education
  • For Students
  • Student Teaching

This section contains information for student teachers. Additional information can be found in the Student Teaching Handbook and on the GoogleClassroom site you will be invited to when you prepare to apply to student teach.

For Pre-Student Teachers

For Student Teachers

Student Teaching Application

Each fall, there is a Student Teaching Application meeting for students planning to student teach the next academic year led by the Director of Field Experiences and Licensure. There are also interest meetings for student teaching abroad.

To student teach locally or abroad, you will complete the Student Teaching Planning Sheet and the Student Teaching Application that will be in GoogleClassroom. You will receive access to that site during the application meetings.

To apply to student teach in Chicago, complete the Student Teaching Planning Sheet in GoogleClassroom and then the Chicago Semester application.

Candidate Presentation

The Candidate Presentation gives you an opportunity to reflect on your progress towards meeting the MN Board of Teaching Standards through your Education coursework and field experiences, and it will help the Education Department gauge your readiness to student teach. During the presentation, you will outline specific goals you have for student teaching and present evidence that you are ready to student teach. This is an important and required assignment; successful completion of this presentation is required in order to student teach. 

The Candidate Presentation occurs the spring semester prior to student teaching for most students. The assignment for the Candidate Presentation will be sent via Tk20. The components of the assignment are:

  1. Tk20 Standards 2-10 and Dispositions Review
    1. Review all the key assessments you’ve submitted to address MN Board of Teaching Standards (most of these should be in your Tk20 account; see the next page for a list). In Tk20, you will attach one or two key assessments to each Standard to demonstrate your competency. You do not need to upload all the key assessments that address the Standards. You may upload the same key assessment for up to three Standards.
    2. Complete the Professional Disposition Self-Assessment artifact in Tk20.
    3. Based on this review of the Standards and your Dispositions, in Tk20 write a Portfolio Reflection Form for each Standard and your Dispositions, noting strengths and areas for growth indicated by your work.  You should refer to specific examples from the artifact(s) you’ve uploaded (as well as others you may not have uploaded) to show evidence of strengths and needs.
  2. Student Teaching Goals– Based on the assessment from Part 1, create three specific student teaching goals (related to MN Board of Teaching Standards, the Dispositions, or other needs you feel you need to address) and determine a plan to meet those goals.
  3. Readiness to Student Teach– Based on Part 1 and Part 2, write a statement (approximately 1-2 pages) about your readiness to student teach.
  4. Presentation– Present (10 min) to a group of your peers and one Education faculty member on your readiness to student teach and one specific goal for student teaching.

Student Teaching Handbook

The Student Teaching Handbook can be accessed here.

Student Teaching Contact Information

  • Student Teachers should complete the Student Teacher Schedule application in Tk20 to communicate their teaching and prep schedule with the Education Department and their Student Teaching Supervisors. Locate this at Applications–>Create–>Student Teacher Schedule.

Human Relations

The Minnesota Human Relations Requirement is a state mandate (Minnesota Rule Chapter 8710.0400) for all applicants for teacher licensure in Minnesota. The Human Relations Requirement develops the ability of applicants to

  1. Understand the contributions and life styles of various racial, cultural, and economic groups in our society,
  2. Recognize and deal with dehumanizing biases, discrimination and prejudices,
  3. Create learning environments which contribute to the self-esteem of all persons and to positive interpersonal relations,
  4. Respect human diversity and personal rights, and
  5. Know about American Indian language, history, government, and culture (this component is addressed in ED 385).

The purpose of the Human Relations requirements is to prepare you for teaching in a multicultural society.  The Human Relations requirements also satisfy standards 3D, 3F, and 3J on “Diverse Learners” of the Standards of Effective Practice. The Human Relations requirements (a-d) for St. Olaf College teacher candidates are met by:

  1. Satisfactorily completing the Cognitive Component (coursework) and the Experiential Component (a K-12 classroom experience in a diverse school as a tutor or teacher aide for a minimum of 80 hours; 40 of these hours must be in a K-12 setting during the school day) throughout the teacher education program and documenting them in Tk20 to address the following areas: Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Cultural Diversity (including gender roles and religious diversity), Socioeconomic Diversity, and Linguistic Diversity, and
  2. Writing a reflective essay following student teaching that include a discussion of how the cognitive and experiential components have prepared you to teach in a diverse setting, address prejudices and discrimination in the classroom and schools, take into account community and cultural norms, and teach about diversity.
  3. Students complete the Human Relations (ED 382) form in Tk20 after student teaching.

Professional Dispositions

In Tk20, you will be asked to evaluate your professional dispositions at the end of student teaching.

Standards of Effective Practice, Standard 1

Student teachers will upload evidence in their Tk20 portfolio demonstrating that they’ve met Standard 1 ONLY. For each licensure area, students will upload at least three pieces of evidence TOTAL and write a reflection on how that evidence demonstrates that Standard 1 has been met. Students should think of compiling evidence to show that they’ve met the standard globally, not each individual substandard (although students can certainly refer to specific substandards in the reflection form). In the Portfolio Reflection Form, student explain why each artifact demonstrates mastery of Standard 1. Subject matter standards for MN teachers can be found at this link from the MN Office of the Revisor of Statutes.

edTPA

The edTPA is a national, subject-specific portfolio-based assessment of teaching performance that is completed by student teachers to demonstrate their readiness for a full-time classroom teaching assignment. It was developed utilizing best-practices in teacher evaluation and is based on a California assessment used for teacher licensure. Minnesota and five other states have accelerated their adoption of the edTPA in order to have more voice in its shaping.

  • Handbooks

    • Student teachers complete the edTPA during the professional semester of their teacher preparation programs. Each content area has its own edTPA; currently, handbooks can be found in your Tk20 edTPA portfolio.

  • Videotaping

    • Permissions

      • Student teachers should discuss the edTPA with their host teachers and must gain permission from the parents/guardians of their students for videotaping (unless otherwise authorized by school and district agreements).

    • Media Equipment

      • Video recording equipment is available in the Education Department for students to check out for the purpose of recording teaching sessions. The equipment includes iPads, video cameras and ancillary equipment to facilitate the recording (tri-pods, power cords, USB cables, etc.).
      • Loan period: The student may check out the equipment for the duration of recording the classroom teaching session(s), editing, downloading and transferring the files. The loan period can vary from a few days, to a month or a semester and will be determined by the course professor.
      • All equipment must be checked out and checked in with a staff person by completing the appropriate loan agreement during regular office hours.

    • Guidelines

      • Video files must be in one of the accepted video formats: mov, mp4, avi, mpg, wmv, m4v.
      • Videos should not be in HD.
      • Video clips should not exceed 20 minutes TOTAL in duration.
      • Each video file should  be 100MB TOTAL or less.

    • Assistance with Video

      • Check with DISCO for assistance with moving video from camera to computer, video compression, etc.

    • Compression

      • Tk20 strongly recommends that all video files, regardless of size, be compressed to less than 100MB TOTAL.
      • Information on Handbrake (video compression software) from Tk20.

  • Unit and Lesson Plans

    • Student teachers should decide on a unit of instruction in which to embed the edTPA. The edTPA covers 3-5 days of instruction (called the “learning segment”) within the unit; students prepare a 20-minute teaching video (as specified by the content-area handbook), submit lesson plans using the St. Olaf template: (color and edTPA coded) or  non-coded), analyze student work, and reflect on the teaching segment.
    • Unit Plan– this is a template you can use for your unit plan; you should send a copy to your generalist and specialist supervisors at least ONE WEEK before you teach the unit.
    • REMOVE your name/school from any files you upload for the edTPA.