1) If you are comfortable, address the issue with your teacher candidate. 

2) If you are not comfortable addressing this with your teacher candidate directly, or if you address this with your teacher candidate and do not see improvement in a timely manner - PLEASE contact UTK! You can contact the program supervisor or jalea.adams@utk.edu. We have found that early interventions with teacher candidates around areas of concern can be VERY effective - so if you are "on the fence" about contacting us or not . . . please contact us and let us help with issues as they arise! 

1) You have the opportunity to provide feedback regarding UTK supervisors twice an academic year, via the UTK Supervisor survey. 

2) If you have concerns about supervision and do not want to wait until the supervisor survey is deployed, please contact osbe@utk.edu and we will assist! 

Please let a UTK representative know as soon as you know there is the potential that you may need to terminate your mentorship of a candidate. We will send you a brief form to complete to make sure that we have addressed any and all concerns. 

If the teacher candidate, the mentor, and the UTK supervisor agree, the teacher candidate can serve as a substitute teacher IF they are hired to do so by the district/school. Candidates cannot serve as unpaid substitutes, for a variety of legal and ethical reasons. 

Substitute teaching can be a good way to earn extra money, to visit diverse classrooms and interact with different learners, to practice classroom management strategies, and to learn how to write and leave sub plans :). However, serving as a substitute teacher should not overly interfere with the professional learning experience in the classroom as supervised by the mentor teacher. If your candidate serving as a substitute is excessive in your opinion, please contact the UTK supervisor or OSBE to discuss. 

This happens sometimes! We ask that you consider continuing to serve as a mentor to the teacher candidate for the duration of the academic year (or the original time that you agreed to mentor the candidate). We know it can be disappointing to lose the opportunity to have an intern or student teacher in your class, but ultimately the decision to switch to a JEP program is the decision of the teacher candidate and the hiring school/district. Sometimes this decision is largely financial (so please don't take it personally).