In the final year of the teacher candidates’ program, the Office of Clinical Experience places candidates in a studio school location to complete their year-long Practicum I and II clinical experience. The studio school partnership allows UMSL’s teacher candidates to fully engage in the school experience. The teacher candidates co-teach, teach independently,  participate in staff meetings, opening of school activities, setting up classrooms, professional development days, IEP meetings, data team meetings, parent/teacher conferences, and field trips.

In order to be accepted into Practicum I, candidates must complete a thorough application process ( see the 7-Step Application section of the Practicum Application page). The application carries the candidates through to Practicum II. All supporting documentation must be scanned and uploaded to the COE portal, with the exception of the application, which is completed electronically. Please see Important Dates for application deadlines.

Choosing Your Practicum Site

After a candidate’s application has been approved by the advising office, the Office of Clinical Experience will send the candidates a Studio Schools Preference Survey  asking them to rank the studio school options by preference. Placements are ultimately selected by factoring in the survey results, available site openings as well as the timeframe in which practicum applications are submitted. Teacher candidates who submit their applications by the required date, making sure that all of the supporting documents are up to date, have a better opportunity at receiving their preferred studio school site. The Office of Clinical Experience will  email candidates with their confirmed studio school site placement and designated consent number for registration. Any questions regarding the practicum process can be directed to Chrsitine Sykora.

Teacher candidates will:

  • Participate in all professional opportunities including school and district professional development, parent/teacher conferences, professional learning communities, data teams, Individualized Education Plan meetings, faculty meetings and open houses. 
  • Attend on-site collaborative exchanges led by your clinical educator.
  • Develop and implement a minimum of four lesson plans incorporating scientific design practices.
  • Teach whole groups, small groups and collaboratively with other teachers.
  • Record videos of themselves teaching at least three times.
  • Teach diverse populations, including emergent multilinguals and students with Individualized Education Plans.
  • Request extra copies of district/school texts and teacher guides from your clinical teacher and become familiar with the related grade-level Missouri Learning Standards.
  • Learn district curriculum.
  • Implement classroom management skills and strategies.
  • Complete all work as assigned in the Practicum syllabus.
  • Follow the daily schedule as required of classroom teachers at the Studio School site, including arrival and departure times.
  • Follow the school district’s calendar, including all holidays, Parent-Teacher conferences, open houses, Professional Development days, Spring/Fall breaks, etc.  You must print or refer to your district’s calendar from their website.  

MEES Observation

DESE requires all teacher candidates in the state of Missouri to be evaluated using the MEES Teacher Candidate Assessment Rubric by their university clinical educator as well as by  their K-12 clinical teacher. The university requires clinical teachers and clinical educators evaluate their teacher candidates 4 times per semester: 2 informally and 2 formally. Two formal observations, one formative and one summative, will be collected via MyCOE.