Student Teaching Placement

Welcome to the student teaching application process and congratulations on nearing an important milestone in your preparation to join the teaching profession. Student teaching is considered the culminating experience in your pre-service teacher education, one that is meant to provide you with an invaluable opportunity to apply all that you have learned so far in a real life context with the ongoing support and feedback of an expert, mentor teacher.

Background on Student Teaching

In addition to fulfilling a condition of teacher certification, student teaching serves an important role in the preparation of new teachersespecially in helping them to link the theory and research learned in their coursework to the planning, teaching, and assessment of their lessons. Teacher candidates often struggle to understand and develop skills for applying newly learned information. They likewise often struggle with contradictions between their own ideas about and experiences with students, teaching, and learning and what they have learned in their formal teacher education. Student teaching provides an opportunity for aspiring teachers to learn to manage these conflicting ideas and to practice what they have learned in the context of diverse, real-life, supportive teaching experiences.

However, ensuring that these research-to-practice links occur and that each teacher candidate is well-prepared for the challenges of effectively differentiating instruction for often large classes of students from a wide range of achievement levels, students different prior knowledge and school experiences, racial/ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, and levels of family and community support is not easy. Careful thought and planning needs to be given to matching individual teacher candidates to specific cooperating teachers and schools, these schools and teachers must be willing and capable of providing supportive environments for mentoring new teachers, and these relationships and the teacher candidate need significant and reliable support and supervision. Likewise, the candidate needs to have had sufficient preparation and opportunities and supports for reflection to make the most effective use of the student teaching experience.

Getting Started

Before completing the online application, you must review the following guidelines:

1. Are You Eligible to Student Teach?
2. Where Will I Be Placed?
3. How Do I Complete the Application Process?

If you have further questions, refer to the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Contact Information

For questions or concerns about your student teaching placement or application, contact:

Bernard McGee, M.Ed.
phone: (215) 204-1520.
email: mcgee@temple.edu
office location: Ritter Hall, Room 337.

Dept of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology in Education
College of Education
Temple University
1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19122