General Information

COVID-19 Vaccinations

Starting Fall 2021, any candidate registered to complete a clinical experience for the academic year will be responsible for following SUNY Oswego and your assigned school district's protocols related to COVID-19. Some districts are now requiring candidates to be fully vaccinated before starting the experience in the district. We anticipate more districts will follow suit in the near future. If you are not vaccinated, you may be limited in opportunities to complete the required clinical experiences for program completion. 

Please continue to visit and review the Health and Wellness website for university updates related to COVID-19. Be sure also to visit your assigned school district's website frequently to stay updated on district protocols, which are subject to change. 

NYS's Current response to COVID-19 and school guidelines can be found here.
For more information on the NYS COVID-19 Vaccine, please visit this site.

Clinical Experience

Clinical experiences provide opportunities to observe and apply theory learned in an authentic classroom and practical setting, in addition to working with a full range of students of varying ages and abilities, as well as different racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds.

During each experience, candidates are asked to act as "participant observers," closely monitoring all classroom/setting interactions, and seeking ways to contribute to the environment in which they are placed.  The time spent in the classroom should increase, and the development of the teacher candidate should grow at each level of the clinical experience.

The Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office works closely with the Curriculum and Instruction Department, the Technology Education Department, and the Career and Technical Educator Preparation Department to arrange field experience for teacher candidates. The configuration and placement procedures for each clinical experience vary depending on your program and the block you are completing.  All clinical experiences are a requirement of a specific course and are directly linked to course content.

Additional credit can be sought by completing EDU 300 in coordination with your faculty advisor.  Students who are granted approval for the extra credit should complete the General SOE Clinical Experience application at the direction of their advisor.  

Student Teaching

Your student teaching experience has been carefully designed to be as realistic and as intensive as actual teaching. During student teaching, you will demonstrate the skills and knowledge you have acquired through your education classes and previous field experiences. You will be supervised in your classroom by a certified and experienced cooperating teacher who has been successful in a classroom of their own.

Student teachers are also expected to participate in any required staff development, including but not limited to Superintendent’s Conferences and faculty/department meetings. Student teachers are encouraged to participate in after-school activities, school functions, etc. Assignments include, but are not limited to, lesson planning and adaptation, effective classroom management techniques, effective communication skills, strategies for working with special needs students, and the use of developmental and content reading and writing strategies as part of the integration of language arts processes.

To be eligible for New York State certification, all candidates registered in a teacher education program are required to student teach and/or complete an internship under a college supervisor.

Placements

The Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office is responsible for making all placements; therefore, all placements must be arranged through our office. We work hard to maintain excellent relationships with cooperating schools and are required to abide by their placement procedures and comply with all school and district policies. It is also important that we make sure we have trained college supervisors available in a certain area for student teaching. Please refrain from seeking your own placements with an informal request, this can delay your placement as well as placements for other candidates.  Some teachers may not be eligible to be a host teacher for a specific student due to the student's program and diversity needs.  If a teacher has requested you for student teaching, all efforts will be made to honor that request; however, no placement is guaranteed. Please have them send our office an email at cppoffice@oswego.edu with the request and to include their name, the school, their grade level/subjects taught, and the quarter they would like to host you.   

Interviews

It’s common for teachers and principals to request a candidate to interview prior to their acceptance. If you are called for an interview, respond promptly and treat it with the same professionalism that you would a formal job interview.

Notification

The Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office will notify you of your placement via email. Placements that are confirmed within 1-3 days prior to your start date will also be sent by email and/or phone call.

Child Protection Training

All SUNY Oswego students in the School of Education are required to complete the Child Training Protection training every two years.  Notification about this training will come via email from the Campus Life Office. You can learn more about the SUNY Policy here ->  https://www.oswego.edu/campus-life/child-protection

Prior Felony Conviction Questionnaire 

All SUNY Oswego students in the School of Education are required to complete the Prior Felony Conviction Questionnaire each semester they are registered for a clinical practice or applied learning experience. You can learn more about the SUNY Policy here ->  https://www.oswego.edu/policies/prior-felony-convictions-policy 

Candidate Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records, inclusive of student health records, maintained by PreK-12 schools.  It is a requirement for all students participating in a field placement to sign an confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.  More information can be found on the NYS Education Department websites:

FERPA/HIPAA

Education Law Section 2-D Definitions

Disability Arrangements

If you have a disability and need special arrangements, please contact the Accessibility Resource Services Office 315.312.3358, dss@oswego.edu, or visit them at 155 Marano Campus Center. The Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office will arrange accommodations for you based on their determination of needs.

Absences and Holidays: Field Experience

You are required to attend the field experience on the days agreed upon between you and your cooperating teacher.  The number of hours and the duration of the experience is determined by your program (review your course outline/syllabus).  In the event of absence or tardiness due to illness or other unavoidable emergencies, you must:

• Call your cooperating teacher and the school office as soon as possible but no later than one hour before school starts on the day of the absence.
• Arrange delivery to your cooperating teacher all materials that are necessary for instruction on the day of the absence.
• Note the absence or holiday on your timesheet, and be sure to work with your cooperating teacher to identify a day to make-up the experience.  

During the field experience, candidates are to follow the vacation/holiday schedule of SUNY Oswego and not the school district where the placement occurs.   

Absences and Holidays: Student Teaching

You are required to attend student teaching every day, however, in the event of absence or tardiness due to illness or other unavoidable emergencies, you must:

• Call your college supervisor, cooperating teacher, and the school office as soon as possible but no later than one hour before school starts on the day of the absence.
• Arrange delivery to your cooperating teacher all materials that are necessary for instruction on the day of the absence.
• Follow school district policies for reporting and documenting teacher tardiness or absence to the school officials.

Student teaching candidates are to follow the vacation/holiday schedule of the district that they are student teaching in, not the SUNY Oswego vacation/holiday schedule. 

Student Athletes

1. The Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office is not obligated to place candidates close to campus because they are student athletes. The office will work to ensure the placement is within an acceptable distance and experience.
2. Coursework and clinical experiences take precedence over athletic practices and home games. 
3. Athletes who are members of an NCAA Division III athletic team will be expected to prioritize coursework and clinical experiences over practice and home games. Athletes will not be allowed to miss or leave class or placements early to participate in practices or home games.
4. The student athlete is responsible for informing the cooperating teacher, their professor(s), and the Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office of any away games that interfere with the completion of a field experience prior to the start of the semester and no later than the final date to drop a semester course as officially listed on the SUNY Oswego Academic Calendar each semester.      
5. Athletes who are members of Spring NCAA Division III athletic teams that travel the week of the campus Spring break have two attendance options: (1) They can choose to travel with their athletic team that week and extend their student teaching by five days. These five days are those that directly follow the final student teaching date listed on the official SUNY Oswego Academic Calendar; or (2) they can choose not to travel with their team, in which case, their student teaching is not extended.

Deferment

If you decide to defer a placement semester, please notify the Clinical Practice and Partnerships Office in writing immediately. You will then need to reapply online to be eligible to complete the experience for a later semester.