Area teachers train on teacher mentoring process
Georgia Southern University alumni attending Clinical CAMP
Clinical CAMP (Coaching, Assessing, Mentoring, and Preparing) is held annually by the College of Education (COE) to provide teacher mentor training for P-12 classroom teachers who are committed to hosting teacher candidates in collaboration with the College and to mentor students during their clinical practice in the classroom.
Known as clinical supervisors, these teachers take on the responsibility of guiding the in-classroom preparation of COE students that are working to earn their teaching certification.
On June 5, 184 clinical supervisors from area schools attended Clinical CAMP to receive up-to-date information on topics such as mentoring, roles and responsibilities of a clinical supervisors, cognitive coaching, state standards and certification requirements.
COE’s Director of Field Experiences and Clinical Practice, Pat Parsons, Ed.S., coordinated the day’s events.
“There is an expectation from the state that all of our clinical educators are rigorously selected and prepared to mentor our teacher candidates,” explained Parsons. “In an effort to prepare our clinical supervisors and provide them support as they work with our future educators, we host Clinical CAMP.”
Of the teachers in attendance, over half were graduates of Georgia Southern University.
“It’s inspiring to see so many of our former students return to now mentor teacher candidates who are completing the very programs they graduated from,” said Parsons. “They have experienced what these students are currently experiencing, so it is a unique kinship that our alumni and current students have the opportunity to develop.”
Both faculty from the College and experienced clinical supervisors collaboratively hosted the program meetings to provide both college and school-level insight into the best practices for mentoring teacher candidates.
Student panel during Clinical CAMP
Program sessions included: Development of a Teacher Candidate with Cognitive Coaching; Interventions to Support Candidate Success; edTPA Overview and P-12 Support; Program Updates–Consolidation and Co-Teaching; and Lesson Plan and Lesson Evaluations.
The training concluded with a teacher candidate panel of both current students and recent graduates of teacher certification programs. The panel provided the clinical supervisors with insight into the teacher candidates’ experience during their classroom experience including areas of success or improvement they could identify would be beneficial for clinical supervisors in their future mentorships. Participants in the panel included Brittany Harbin, Julie Scott, Megan Pennington, Emily Lewis and Margaret Anne Garrett.
Clinical Camp is hosted each summer by the College of Education. For more information about Clinical Camp or becoming a clinical supervisor, contact Pat Parsons at pparsons@georgiasouthern.edu
Posted in COE Events