Teaching Practica

Practicum I

All elementary education majors and secondary English education majors are required to participate in Practicum I. This is the education major’s first supervised and formal student teaching experience. The practicum takes place at a local school with a large population of speakers of other languages. The focus of the practicum is to train teachers to work closely with ESOL students in diagnosing their reading, writing and comprehension levels.

Practicum II

All education majors (except for exercise science and music) are required to participate in Practicum II. The program is an intensive study involving the application of education theory, philosophy, and pedagogical principals. Required is a 120-hour minimum field experience for which extensive, fully-planned lessons are developed and implemented in a classroom. Lectures, workshops and seminars about curriculum and instruction issues are presented at the university. Field experience placements are assigned by the Department of Education and supervised by Department of Education faculty.

Practicum III

Practicum III is completed during a student's last semester. Earlier consideration requires special permission, with the exception of students participating in intercollegiate sports who must teach during the semester in which they are not participating in their sport.

The Practicum III student teacher spends a full semester in a school. Students desiring to enroll in the teaching internship program (EDU 405, 406, 407, 411, 412) must apply the semester preceding the proposed internship. Students must have been admitted to the professional education program and must have:

• An overall 2.5 GPA or better on a 4.0 scale
• A minimum 2.5 GPA in the major area
• Passed all portions of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam.

Requirements for admission are subject to change to comply with State Department of Education regulations.

Students enrolled in EDU 405, 406, 407, 411 or 412 are permitted to concurrently enroll in only EDU 444, Student Teaching Seminar. No other course may be taken at the time of the final internship.

Prior to graduation and as part of the requirements for successful completion of the internship, students must successfully pass both the CLAST (taken prior to July 1, 2002) OR the GK (taken after July 1, 2002) AND the Florida Teacher Certification Exam (FTCE).

Graduation from The University of Tampa's approved teacher education program satisfies eligibility criteria for a Florida teaching certificate and an initial teaching certificate in most other states.