Professional Semester

The professional semester, consisting of a minimum of fifteen (15) weeks of in-school experiences, terminates at the end of Xavier University's academic semester. During this semester, the student teacher must teach a full-time teaching load in an assigned school and attend a weekly seminar at the University. The student begins this experience on the first day of school (or teacher in-service) and concludes on Xavier's last day of classes for that semester. The student teacher may be required to make up school days missed during the student teaching experience. While many factors may influence the necessity of outside employment during the professional semester, it should be remembered that student teaching is greater than the equivalent of full-time employment. Therefore, outside commitments must be limited so that they will not interfere with or jeopardize the success of the student teaching experience.

If necessary, with the approval of the director of secondary education, one additional course may be taken during the professional semester. However, commitment to the obligation of student teaching must be the first priority of the student teacher.

The student teacher must teach a minimum of ten (10) consecutive weeks of the 15-week semester and must approximate a teacher's normal day.
The cooperating teacher will be helpful in suggesting ways in which the student might use any non-teaching time. Planning, sitting in on counseling sessions and observing other classes and teachers are some suggestions.
Student teaching is evaluated on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis supported by written statements from the cooperating teacher and the University supervisor. Final evaluations become part of the permanent record file kept in the department of education.