Clinical Experiences
Supporting your professional education
As you’ll discover, your path to becoming a teacher includes everything from:
- Getting admitted to UNI
- Initial coursework and your first forays into classrooms
- Admission to the Teacher Education program
- Final coursework and more immersion in classrooms
- Student teaching
- Receiving your degree — then licensure!
Our particular focus: working with ALL teacher education student teachers and, for your internship experiences, with teaching majors focused on middle and high school teaching. This applies whether you're on campus or in one of our online transfer undergraduate programs or completing your Master of Arts degree in secondary education. It's all part of how the Department of Educational Foundations and Professional Experiences can serve you.
Building a Successful Experience
Our Role in Your Placements
Getting hands-on is something you’ll experience early and often as part of your professional education in Teacher Education. EFPE faculty:
- Lead the elective pre-professional coursework for any teacher education students needing an initial 10 hours observing a classroom to meet state requirements
- Supervise middle and secondary education (grades 5-12) clinical internship experiences in partnership with faculty teaching the methods courses and your mentor teachers
- Supervise all student teaching placements, working with the placement team in the College of Education Advising and Teacher Education Success office who secure placements in more than 90 school districts across Iowa and beyond.
How We Work with You
For student teaching, you can count on our team to guide your progress and growth through your two eight-week placements, which often includes placement in two different classrooms or settings. We’ll engage with you through:
- On-site or virtual visits
- Debriefing conferences
- Seminars and courses
- Teaching and feedback on lesson planning
- Career planning
- Growth assessments and evaluations
- Helping you link theory with practice
- Assisting with out-of-state and international student teaching placement
A modified level of similar support occurs as we work with secondary education students in your internship placements.
I am forever impressed by Leasha Henriksen and her approach with student teachers. She tells it like it is, finds the positives and supports these young teachers immensely. The program and evaluation is designed for student success, the expectations are rigorous, and the students who complete the entire four years through UNI are exceptionally prepared to teach!
Clinical faculty support for student teaching
Clinical faculty in Educational Foundations and Professional Experiences serve as student teaching coordinators for placements in Iowa and beyond. In Iowa, they work with you and more than 90 school districts to ensure successful placements.
AY 25-26
Greater Cedar Valley (Cedar Falls/Waterloo area): Mary Beth Rygh, Jim Stichter, Amy Lockhart, Chelsie Byram, Ericka Lang
Corridor (Cedar Rapids/Iowa City): Leasha Henriksen
Greater Des Moines: Melanie Hill
North Central (Mason City/Charles City): Kady Korbel
Central: Ronnie Manis
Northeast Iowa: Neil Mullen
Southeast Iowa: Kelly Rohlf
Northwest Iowa: Sheryl Larson
West Iowa and Omaha: Katie Towler
Out-of-State and International: Carrie Elser
AY 26-27
Greater Cedar Valley: Amy Lockhart, Jim Stichter
South Central/Southeast: Leasha Henrickson
Greater Des Moines: Melanie Hill
North Central/Northeast: Kady Korbel
Western: Katie Towler
Out-of-State and International: Carrie Elser
Coordination of internships
Clinical faculty in Educational Foundations and Professional Experiences supervise the Internship 1 and Internship 2 experiences for our secondary education majors (grades 5-12, middle or high school), primarily in Cedar Valley area schools, outside of accommodations for remote students.
