FAQs

Please feel free to contact Stacy Yung (syung@uci.edu).

Set up clear and detailed agreements. Revise the agreements, and revisit as needed.  

Model these behaviors.

Invite your student teacher to collaboration meetings. 

Pre-brief before a lesson, debrief after co-teaching, and model what reflection looks/sounds like.

Ask questions about what you are both noticing and experiencing.

Provide opportunities for your student teacher to give and receive feedback.

Create a safe environment where it’s OK to make mistakes, reflect, and revise.

Set up a consistent time and place for collaboration to take place each week.

Initially, your student teacher will take notes that might be important to remember or reflect on, especially during the first placement, and especially during the first weeks.  Gradually, the student teacher needs to be more actively involved with students.  Talk to your student teacher about what “active” looks like/sounds like.  Should they be assisting particular students?  Working with small groups?  Be explicit.

Select a day and time to engage in a thoughtful conversation.  Be honest, start with positive feedback, and mention that you care and want your student teacher to succeed.  Ask your candidate to reflect on the issue at hand and have a plan for improvement.  

Unless your student teacher is substituting for you, they can be alone only for short periods of time.  As the teacher of record, mentors are legally responsible for the well being of classroom students.

We encourage you to use some of the questions from the UCI Post-Observation Conference Protocol to ask your candidate questions that focus on the learning goal, evidence of student learning and next steps. Some of these questions include:

• What were the main ideas/concepts students were supposed to understand from this lesson?

• What specific examples of student learning do you have that showed students made significant progress toward the learning goal?

• What decisions and/or strategies did you notice/use that led to successful student learning of your learning goal?  

• What specific examples of student learning do you have that showed students did not make significant progress toward the learning goal or still have partial understanding?

• What decisions and/or strategies did you notice/use that may have interfered or created missed opportunities in terms of student learning?  

• If you were to teach this lesson again,  what alternative instructional strategies would you use to better support students to make significant progress toward the learning goals?  How do you expect these strategies to impact students’ achievement of the lesson learning goal(s)? 

• Using evidence of student learning, what will be your next steps in future instruction with the class, small groups, and/or individual students?

At the end of each quarter (fall, winter, spring), the mentor teacher will evaluate their UCI student teacher based on their understanding and mastery of the Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs). Mentor Teachers may use this sample form to conference with their student teacher about their progress. The program coordinator will email the actual evaluation link to mentor teachers as a QuestionPro survey.