Mentor / Cooperating Teacher Responsibilities

Suggestions for Including your UNT Teacher Candidate in your Learning Community

• Let your students know that another “teacher” will be joining your learning community.
• Prepare a workspace for the teacher candidate.
• When contact is made for the first time with the teacher candidate, exchange phone numbers, email addresses, and preferred communication modes/times.
• Discuss emergency and health procedures such as COVID protocols, fire drills, lockdowns, illness, fighting, etc.
• Orient the teacher candidate to the students, the school calendar and daily schedule, the building facilities and resources, the personnel-administrators, faculty, and staff, school policies and procedures, the nature of the community, and professional opportunities.
• Explain the methods of record keeping for attendance, tardiness, grades, conduct, etc.
• Provide guidelines for the teacher candidate related to duties outside the instructional space (recess, lunch, dismissal, etc.
• Explain your philosophy of classroom management, the specific techniques that are to be used, and how behavioral issues should be addressed when the cooperating teacher and teacher candidate are both in the classroom.
• Share your methods and resources for engaging students in learning.
• Choose a specific time for planning on a daily/weekly basis.
•  Keep interactive lines of communication open and discuss issues that arise frankly, immediately, and one at a time.
• Invite the teacher candidate to faculty/curriculum meetings and parent/teacher conferences when appropriate.

Responsibility to the Cadre Coordinator

• Allow the teacher candidate to attend all required seminars/meetings which are part of the field experience.
• Participate in three-way Triad conferences with the teacher candidate and cadre coordinator.
• Communicate with the cadre coordinator on a regular basis. Contact them with questions and concerns.
• Performance problems that are not easily resolved should be identified and discussed as early as possible with the UNT cadre coordinator.
• Submit teacher candidate and cadre coordinator evaluations online through Foliotek.