Student Teaching in CSD

Student teaching in Communication Sciences is an exciting, demanding, eight week experience. It is a chance for you to hone the clinical and professional skills required for initial teacher certification. Student teaching is the capstone clinical experience for students in the Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) initial certification option.

Student teaching is scheduled in the senior year, and requires the student to have first completed at least two semesters of the undergraduate clinic lab (CSD 362L) with grades of "B" or better. Student teaching occurs in the final eight weeks of a semester and is, typically, immediately preceded by the senior seminars in Behavior Management (CSD 452) and Language Disorders (CSD 454W), both of which are completed in the first half of the semester. The full-semester night class Organization and Administration of Speech-Language-Hearing Services in the Schools (CSD 468) is taken concurrently.

Prospective student teachers need to plan ahead for their student teaching semester. They need to strongly consider the impact that extracurricular activities will have on their ability to successfully complete the experience. Student teachers are expected to be on-site at their student teaching placement all day, every day. This means arriving prior to the beginning of the official school day, and being available for after-school meetings with your cooperating teacher, other teachers in the building, parents and administrators. Experience has shown that student teachers often remain at school for several hours at the end of the day for meetings, planning, and to gather materials for upcoming therapy sessions. Meeting and preparation time is an excellent way for students to develop a thorough understanding of the teaching process, and is a very important contributor to student success in student teaching. The after school expectation sometimes includes attending more general after-school meetings and continuing education events, and occasionally means meetings in the evenings for events such as parent-teacher conferences, school-wide open houses, etc. Student teachers also continue their lesson planning and material gathering at home in the evening. They also need to be well rested at the start of each day. Students who are involved in extracurricular activities such as: sports, jobs, theater, music, clubs and other organizations need to either withdraw from those activities while student teaching or, at the very least, significantly cut back on them.

Scheduling of student teaching is tight. In order to complete the number of days required by New York State students are permitted a maximum of three absences, but absences could require extension of the experience beyond the normal end date. During a spring semester, additional absences could prevent the student from participating in graduation. Excessive or unplanned absences may result in termination or failure of student teaching.