General Education Teaching Requirements for Interns (Education Specialists Candidates)
Intern candidates working as special education teachers are required to teach in general education in order to meet state credential standards. Typically this general education teacher experience occurs during the summer. The candidates are placed by Dominican’s placement coordinator or selected by the candidate with approval by the program coordinator, using the following guidelines:
- It must be for the entire summer school session – 4-6 weeks, as the district has defined a session.
- It must be at the elementary or middle or high school level, based on the candidate’s selected emphasis area.
- It must contain between 80 and 120 hours of supervised teaching (that is, 4 hours a day for 4-6 weeks).
- It must involve teaching the subject(s) in which the candidate has demonstrated subject matter competence.
- It may be either paid or volunteer work.
- It must be supervised by the classroom teacher (in the case of student teaching) or the school administrator (in the case of paid work).
This experience must be documented in the following manner:
- Daily journal reflections on the candidate’s teaching experience, what his/her students are learning and how he/she knows that;
- Weekly observation notes from the school site supervisor (the classroom teacher or school administrator);
- Weekly observation notes from the university supervisor;
- Final evaluation form, Form #9/9A or Form #10/10A, completed by the school site supervisor (the classroom teacher or school administrator) and the university supervisor.
- Complete documentation must be submitted to the program chair within two weeks of the completion of the summer session.
