Cooperating Teacher - Cooperating Teachers are school-based teachers in a PDS who serve as the mentor teacher for a teacher candidate, Resident or student teacher. Cooperating teachers model classroom practices that support the benchmark expectations for the university students they mentor and supervise. The responsibilities of a Cooperating Teacher include co-planning, co-teaching, and observing/conferencing with the FSU teacher candidate. Cooperating Teachers collaborate with the PDS Site Coordinator and the university Supervisor to assess the performance of the candidates, Residents and student teachers, to make decisions about the readiness for increased responsibilities, and to determine evaluation and final grades.
Professional development is provided for Cooperating Teachers by Site Coordinators and the PDS Partnership Office.
The Fairmont State University office of clinical experiences selects cooperating teachers from the schools involved in the PDS partnership. The cooperating teachers are those that model best practices and serve as exceptional role models for future teachers.
WV Policy 5100 5.17.a states:
Effective July 1, 2018, at a minimum, the cooperating educator should:
In addition, Fairmont State University adheres to these additional requirements:
Generally, only one student teacher will be placed with any host teacher, but this may be modified when necessary, if the situation is advantageous to the student teacher and Fairmont State University.
The role of the cooperating teacher is to serve as model, guide, and instructor for the teacher candidates. While the primary responsibility is always to the students in the classroom, you will want to be aware that the teacher candidate is someone who is growing in competence and needing assistance while gradually assuming an increasing amount of responsibility. Though teacher candidates will make mistakes and need the benefit of constructive criticism, cooperating teachers will want to avoid making the criticism public in such a way that impairs the relationship between teacher candidates and students in the classroom.
The cooperating teacher has agreed to the following responsibilities: