EDU 390 Elementary Reading/Language Arts Practicum

Cooperating Teacher Feedback Comments

Great students! I have had three practicum students and they have all been wonderful!
My practicum student was well prepared and always professional. From day one she took
the initiative to work with students and get involved in the classroom. Having her in the
room was a wonderful experience and she showed many qualities to help her have a great
career in education.
My practicum student was very well prepared and did an excellent job. She has
wonderful skills to become an elementary teacher. This semester compared to other
semesters appeared to be less organized than others in which I have been a cooperating
teacher. My practicum student was very organized but as the cooperating teacher, I did
not feel I received enough information pertaining to the expectations of my student's
professor. To determine what the expectations were I e-mailed her professor and did
receive a response. The response was not as specific as I feel it should have been. To
effectively evaluate my practicum student I believe I should have received more specific
information regarding each of her teaching assignments. Knowing what the professor
expects of the student in addition to what is expected through evaluation using the KTip
form would have been valuable.
My Practicum student was very prepared and had a great understanding of the standards,
developing a lesson, and delivering an appropriate lesson! Great experience!
It has been a great program, but I thought this semester was even better.
It was fun.
Great!
I felt like the practicum experience went well. I felt like the student working with my
class grew as an educator. Whenever I had questions or concerns, I knew who to contact
and they responded very quickly with answers.
Strengths- students are professional and responsible Weaknesses- some students seemed
underprepared for their role and were a little uncomfortable teaching to the level of rigor
we hold our students to; need more work in RTI training
I have been very lucky and have had great experiences with the NKU practicum students
that have been assigned to me. They are open to suggestions and willing to learn how to
work collaboratively with others. One suggestion is to make them more familiar how to
use the Common Core Standards.
I think that the practicum experience is quite valuable for students throughout their
education coursework.
I have always had students with excellent disposition and preparedness.
Did not receive information from university advisor until weeks into the program.
Lessons were not aligned to the standards (based on what practicum had to teach per
instructions from NKU instructor).
I enjoy having a practicum student...but I think there needs to be more communication
with grades that are departmentalized. Sometimes I will get a practicum student that
needs to teach Math/Science lessons and I solely focus on Language Arts...this can be
difficult. Other than that, it is an enjoyable experience.
Excellent program!

Having never had a student in this practicum before I was not sure what to expect. It
seems like the student may have benefited from a little more teaching experience than
was given. I do think that NKU does a better job preparing students for teaching than
many other colleges.
My practicum student was very well prepared and wanted feedback for improvement. I
really feel like going from practicum straight into student teaching is too big of a jump
for them. I think the practicum experience should have more requirements and have them
in charge for 1/2 the day for at least some part of the time they are in the classroom. They
are in our rooms for only 3 hours which isn't truly 1/2 a day and only have to teach for an
hour at the most. Why not have them arrive at the start of the day (8:00) and stay until
the class goes to lunch (12:00) so they can experience ALL procedures and routines?
And have them teach for the entire Literacy Block (Reading & Writing) instead of just
one lesson? Student teachers are so overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in
actually teaching all day...I just feel like NKUs requirements could be strengthened to
help alleviate some of that for the student teachers.
__ was a great practicum student. I hope that if I ever get another student, he/she will be
as prepared as __ was.
Overall, the practicum student I had was well prepared. I felt like the supervisor was not
always available for questions face to face. She did respond to email within 24 hours, but
she wasn't always on time for observations of the student. The student also did not know
when her supervisor would be coming to observe her until the last minute.