Deadline for Placement Requests
The deadline for entering the requests is May 1st. In some situations, this may not be possible, but I ask that every effort be made to hold to this date. If you find that for some placement requests you cannot meet the deadline, please contact Tara Baldridge or Brenda Dixon in Human Resources as soon as possible.
Please keep in mind that Cooperating Mentors are not contacted over the summer break. Placements for fall term need to be confirmed before the current school year ends.
Use the Student Teacher Placement System
Requests for practicum placements are entered on the district's electronic Student Teacher Placement System.
Please do not contact District staff directly regarding placements. Please also advise your practicum students that they are not to contact District Staff directly. All placement requests come through the District Placement Coordinator in Human Resources.
Request an Invitation Code
The first step in this process is to go to Student Teacher Placement System and request an Invitation Code if you do not already have one. Once you have requested an invitation code you will receive an email letting you know your request has been received and an invitation code to log into the website. You will be given a temporary password and asked to create a new password.
If you cannot remember your password in order to log in, please contact Tara Baldridge or Brenda Dixon.
Review Course Descriptions
The second step is to review the course descriptions that are currently in the placement system. If you need to edit a course description you will need to deactivate the course and reenter a new course description. Once a placement has been confirmed under a course description that is active in the system, it cannot be edited.
Enter Names and Descriptions of Any Additional Courses
The third step is to enter the names and descriptions of any additional courses being offered.
Once you have logged in successfully you will see the screen Coordinator Home. To enter the Program Name and Program Description click on Programs at the top on the left side. You will see + Add Program click and that will bring up a box where you will need to put the name of the course and then a brief description. See examples below:
Program Name: OPE II ED214 (Sophomore)
Program Description: 30-hour observation, participation in ESOL or Bilingual classroom, no formal teaching.
Program Name: Term I Part Time Student Teaching
Program Description: 2 1/2 days a week+ mini work sample+ 1 week in classroom all day
Program Name: Aspire Student Teaching
Program Description: Full-time (following teacher contract days) from January through the last day of school. Teaching and work sample required. Candidates take on 1/3 (minimum) to 1/2 (preferred) of a regular teacher's load during this period.
Please be very specific with your program descriptions, the information you provide is what is sent to the Cooperating Mentors. Just putting the name of the course and not the course description is not adequate. Also, please be clear with the start and end dates for the placement requested. If there is more than one request for a practicum student i.e. practicum, part time student teaching, full time student teaching these need to be entered separately with the specific dates for each. Requests cannot be all inclusive if separate experiences and dates are needed. If an endorsement is required be sure to include this with the placement request. Endorsements can be selected on the "Submit Placement Request" page under Academic Area.
Enter Your Placement Requests
The final step will be to enter your placement requests.
- On the Coordinator Home screen, you will see + Add Student Teacher - click on this and it will bring up a screen to enter information regarding the Practicum Student.
- The Practicum Student legal name needs to be entered.
- For the next step, you will see to the right of your name + Add Request and the screen Submit Placement Request will open.
- You will see the information you entered regarding the Practicum Student has auto filled.
- You will need to add the Supervisor First Name, Last Name and email address.
- From there you will see Type of Experience, Academic Area, Requests and Additional Information. Most categories have drop down screens.
- Please use the Additional Information box for special requests i.e. student needs wheelchair access or student is a District employee.
- Once you have completed the Request, please be sure and click on save at the bottom left corner.
As part of the placement process, Practicum Students are required to complete the District criminal history background check form and submit the Practicum Student/Mentee Policy Agreement. For the background check under "Volunteer Role" Student Teacher should be selected and for location Human Resources should be selected as a location may not yet be determined. Placements cannot be confirmed until the criminal history background check has been submitted and cleared and the policy agreement has been read and the first page only is signed, scanned, attached to an email and sent to Brenda Dixon. Please contact your candidates with this information.
Practicum Students are also required to have an ID badge issued by the District. You will receive an email when a placement has been confirmed with the information on how and where badges are issued so that you can contact the Practicum Students. Practicum Students cannot begin their placement until the badge is issued.
Download the PDF version of the this information.