Cooperating Teachers
Welcome to NAU!
We are excited to have you [consider to] join our team of cooperating teachers. Please feel free to navigate the Professional Education Programs site to learn [more] about our Teacher Education Program. NAU Professional Education Programs greatly appreciates the time and effort Cooperating Teachers take to ensure our student teaching candidates receive high quality and well-informed guidance and support during their placement in your classrooms.
Our goal is to provide an extended partnership to our accommodating cooperating teachers and schools by providing tools and resources to help with the mentoring and growing process for future NAU teachers. Whether you are a mentor for a NAU practicum candidate or a NAU teacher candidate, the tools are provided here to help foster the relationship and experience.
A qualified cooperating teacher (supervising practitioner) must have:
1. a teaching certificate in the area that aligns with the teacher candidate’s placement experience (program of study),
2. three years recent teaching experience within the school (ideally) or the district (minimally), and
3. a recommendation as a quality mentor for a teacher candidate (typically vetted through administration)*.
*Please note that all placements follow a specific protocol through each district or school. Teacher candidates may not request a specific teacher, they may only request a specific school and grade level.
Supervising Practitioner Training Accordion Closed
Thank you for your interest in supervising a NAU Teacher Candidate! We greatly appreciate you knowing the time and commitment that it takes to provide quality, meaningful mentoring. The first four modules will provide the foundation that NAU is hoping to create as foundation to mentoring a candidate. We believe you will find each of these modules useful as you mentor NAU candidates throughout the years. Please feel free to download them to your computer for future use along with any of the resources embedded within each module. After you have reviewed the modules, watched the videos, and engaged in a few (or all) of the activities, please complete the Step 1 Quiz associated with these. Upon successful completion of this quiz, you will earn a certificate for 45 units of professional development. Between the course content and implementing the recommended practice with practicum or teacher candidates of NAU, you will see the benefit of these 45 units. The certificate will be sent to the email provided within the Quiz (please allow 7 days for processing and remember to check your spam or junk folders).
You are only asked to complete Step 1, one-time. We are excited about our newest addition to the training course, Step 2: Module 5-TAP. We are confident that you will find this information helpful while supporting an NAU teacher candidate, as well. You will receive 15 unit for professional development upon successful completion of this module. We are eager to share our new tools with you! Our hope is to continue to offer modules that will help support NAU practicum and teacher candidates in a way that works best for you, your students, your community and NAU future teachers! If you have any suggestions that you feel would help support the mentoring process, please feel free to email NAU.SPTraining@nau.edu.
STEP 1
Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, Module 4, Step 1 Quiz
STEP 2
Module 5-TAP, Step 2 Quiz
MORE MODULES COMING THIS SPRING
The Supervising Practitioner Training Course Modules are available to provide a foundation for mentoring a NAU practicum or teacher candidate offering activities and suggested ways to create a quality experience. Here, you will find information, videos, and activities to facilitate the process.
Student Teaching Evaluation Information Accordion Closed
The Cooperating Teacher Student Teaching Evaluation surveys are part of an important set of evaluation instruments we use to gauge our candidates’ preparation and progress during their placement. Your evaluation of the student teaching candidate, as well as your formative feedback, at Midterm and Final, help reinforce good teaching practices and refine areas of improvement for the candidate. Ultimately, candidates’ experiences in your classroom and with your students are fundamental in developing them as future educators.
For data collection purposes, the instruments have been created in an online survey program (called Qualtrics), and the system will send you an email containing a link to follow to complete the correct survey for your student teacher candidate. Please make sure that the information is correct and you are evaluating the teacher candidate currently in your classroom. If you have a second candidate for a second placement, separate emails will be sent.
When there is unsatisfactory progress for either the Midterm or Final evaluation, an automatic message will be sent to Academic Support Director Chris Aungst. It is our intent that providing formative evaluation instruments through this method will facilitate your evaluation of the student teaching candidate and allow us to more effectively monitor candidates’ progress through this crucial phase of their educator preparation.
Examples of the evaluation instruments are here. Click on the appropriate evaluation instrument that corresponds with the program-type for the candidate you will be evaluating.
Cooperating Teachers. Please do not complete the examples below. Please wait for the email link to be sent.
- Art Evaluation Instrument
- Early Childhood Evaluation Instrument
- Early Childhood Special Education Evaluation Instrument
- Elementary Evaluation Instrument
- English Evaluation Instrument
- History Social Studies Evaluation Instrument
- Math Evaluation Instrument
- Modern Languages Evaluation Instrument
- Music Evaluation Instrument
- Physical Education Evaluation Instrument
- Science Evaluation Instrument
- Special Education Evaluation Instrument
The Student Teaching Evaluation Information provides direct links to evaluation examples that are specific to the content of your NAU teacher candidate. Please feel free to peruse the evaluation(s) that is(are) appropriate to your teaching area(s). These will help you understand the direction and expectations of teacher candidates in the classroom.
Resources Accordion Closed
Module 1
Resources will be continuously updated adding links to the Teacher Candidate Handbook and sites used for the Supervising Practitioner Training modules along with other sites or documents that can help better understand NAU programs and mentoring expectations.