The clinical practice experience (formerly known as student teaching) is a ten credit hours field experience for a full semester term in a selected classroom setting and is the last semester of your education program.

A two credit hours seminar is scheduled concurrently with the clinical practice experience. The first seminar meeting is an orientation to the clinical practice experience which includes a review of the clinical practice handbook and a discussion of the expectations for each participant in this experience—teacher candidate, mentor teacher, and university supervisor. An application for your Georgia teaching certificate is also completed at this meeting. Seminars, in addition to this orientation, will be scheduled by your department during the clinical practice experience.

A teacher candidate who receives a grade of Unsatisfactory (U) for clinical practice may apply for clinical practice only one additional time. The teacher candidate will be required to complete a prescribed program of remediation before being permitted to student teach the second time. Any teacher candidate who receives a second grade of “U” for clinical practice will be permanently dismissed from all teacher education programs in the Dewar College of Education and Human Services and will not be recommended for teacher certification by Valdosta State University.

Below, you will find additional documents and information regarding the clinical practice experience.