The Cooperating Teacher
Cooperating Teachers are teaching professionals who mentor, guide, and support teacher credential candidates on their path to becoming credentialed teachers. The goal of the school and Cooperating Teacher placement is to provide the credential candidate in-depth field experiences designed to practice and hone their skills in instructional planning and development, instructional strategies, student assessment, and classroom management.
Cooperating Teachers are extremely important for the development of an effective practicum environment. Cooperating Teachers serve as models for dynamic teaching and effective classroom management. It is important for Cooperating Teachers to allocate time accordingly to provide guidance and support to teacher credential candidates. Conferring regularly with the candidate is especially important in order to provide immediate feedback and the necessary coaching that leads to mastery of effective classroom practices. Conferring can take place before and/or after school or during a preparation period if appropriate.
The credential candidate’s student teaching experience is a time of trial and error, success and failures, triumphs and sometimes, frustration. The role of the Cooperating Teachers is to model, support, recommend, correct, counsel, and sometimes prod the candidate into “treading in unfamiliar waters”. The Cooperating Teacher’s encouragement and support will provide the candidate with the special assistance needed for them to achieve success.