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Lauby Teacher Education Center

Clinical Experiences

Clinical PST Documentation Guide

Clinical experiences are the pre-student teaching (PST) opportunities to observe, tutor, and assist small group and whole class instruction in schools and other agencies. A minimum of 100 clinical hours should be earned before student teaching with a minimum of 50 hours being in a diverse setting. If diverse hourse are not met via PST clinicals, then student teaching should be in a diverse setting. 

Diverse Hours

All ISU students should complete 50 pre-student teaching hours in a diverse setting before student teaching. For cases in which this is not completed, a student teaching placement in a diverse setting should occur. Diversity, within ISU’s database, is determined from Illinois school report card data. For organizations that are not required to report via the ISBE report card, diversity is commonly identified as not diverse. This is due to not having verifiable and consistently reported data. 

There are four areas of diversity on which schools/organizations are judged. To be considered diverse, they must meet at least two of the following diversity minimums:

  1. English Language Learners = 10% or greater 
  2. Students with Disabilities/IEP’s = 5% or greater 
  3. Low Socioeconomic Status = 20% or greater 
  4. Racial Diversity= 20% or greater

For schools/organizations that do not report diversity via the Illinois school report card, students can communicate with their professors and site to determine if an experience meets diverse clinical expectations. Professors may require students to complete and submit proof of diversity. Professors, when approving the pre-student teaching document, can then override the individual site as diverse when approving the students' hours.

Pre-student teaching clinical experiences are completed in coursework prior to student teaching and can begin as early as freshman year. Course expectations for clinicals are determined by the department for each individual course. Questions about the clinicals can be directed to the clinical professor.

List of Districts & Organizations Approved for Clinical Experiences

Forms

The following forms are available for course usage.  These are to be turned into your professor if requested. 

Acknowledgement of Risk and Guidelines for working with minors online form

Videotaping permission for remote instruction and supervision form

Diversity affirmation form

Self placement form

Clinical Experiences Checklist

Before starting a clinical experience

  1. Complete National Criminal Background (NCBC) before registering for clinical course.
  2. Confirm clinical experience expectations with your professor based on course guidelines. Your professor will approve your final hours and set expectations for your clinical experience based on departmental/course/University expectations.
  3. Check with your course instructor for information about your site. See clinical options below:
  4. Complete district/agency requirements for your assigned site.
  5. Review:
  6. Make sure to have appropriate Insurance Coverage
  7. Transportation to all clinical experience sites is the responsibility of the teacher candidate.

Resources for Documenting Clinical Experiences

After completing a clinical experience

When entering your hours, you will start directly on the class search page. On this page you can enter your search criteria to find a specific class or simply click search to view all classes your have been enrolled in while at ISU. When you click on your documentation class, you will be taken to the experience document page for entry of your information. Please review the course information at the top to confirm section and professor.

  1. Complete your clinical experience.
    • While completing your clinical experience, document the dates, hours, name of teacher(s) and school where you are completing your experience.
  2. Submit the online clinical experience document in the Teacher Education section of your Student Center at My.IllinoisState.edu.
    • Your online clinical experience should be submitted by the end of the semester in which they were completed to allow your professor to approve the hours. Only approved hours will be counted towards your accumulative total.
    • School and Organization Clinical Experience Guide - Gives details on clinical experience sites, including site codes, names, and diversity. The list is broken down by Bloomington-Normal, Surrounding Areas, Chicago Public Schools, Study Abroad, and then a full state view (searchable by city).
    • If your school or cooperating teacher is not in the system, please e-mail ClinicalQuestions@IllinoisState.edu and include the following: cooperating teacher name, grade level, school, district, and town.
  3. Instructional resources for document completion:
  4. Viewing your hours:
  5. Problems: If you encounter documentation issues (i.e. school or cooperating teacher is missing, etc.), please e-mail ClinicalQuestions@IllinoisState.edu. For other questions about signing up to attend a site, please refer to course information, wiki pages, and/or course instructors.
  6. Common documentation sites:
    • Annenberg Videos
      • Organization Name and ID: Annenberg Videos - 1001066392
      • Cooperating Teacher Name and ID: Teacher Video - 1000880981
    • Other General Video Experiences
      • Organization Name and ID: Video Experiences - 5000001
      • Cooperating Teacher Name and ID: Teacher Video - 1000880981
    • Tutoring Experiences (e-learning or other tutoring)
      • Organization Name and ID: Community Observations - 5003740
      • Cooperating Teacher Name and ID: Community Tutoring - 1001072698
    • General Community Observations- Used for non-school sites or out of state schools not in our system
      • Organization Name and ID: Community Observations - 5003740
      • Cooperating Teacher Name and ID: Observations Community - 1000902197
    • School/District Experiences
      • Organization Name and ID: Search options by keyword and town
      • Cooperating Teacher Name and ID: Past CT's used by ISU students will be linked to the organization chosen