PBTL Program Details

Field Experiences and Student Teaching

You complete three or four field experiences in public schools, depending on your license. Each one builds on the last, and the final one is a full-time student teaching practicum.

• Middle and high school subject licenses, including Visual Art and Spanish, have three. Field Study I (EDIL 900) is at least 36 hours of observing and assisting in a classroom in your subject. Field Study II is at least 72 hours, taken alongside your teaching methods courses, and you plan and teach your own lessons. Student teaching comes last.
• Early Childhood and Elementary licenses have four. Field Experiences 1, 2 and 3 are each built into your methods courses, starting with literacy and social-emotional learning and moving on to English language arts, social studies, math and science. Student teaching comes last.

Student teaching is a full-time commitment for one semester. Only students admitted to the PBTL program can enroll in the field experiences after the first one, and in student teaching.

Already working in a school? If a school district employs you as a teacher of record or as an aide, in the subject and grade level of your license, you can apply to use a semester of that employment as your practicum. You must be employed when you apply and have finished all other program requirements. For a spring practicum, you must hold the position by October 1 of the fall before. The Education Department reviews each request individually. See the course descriptions for PBTL 888 Practicum Equivalent A and PBTL 889 Practicum Equivalent B.
 

Field Placements

FSU's Coordinator of Field Placements arranges every placement. You don't find your own. More than 350 FSU students visit public schools each semester, so placements take careful planning with each school.

• For Field Study I, submit your complete PBTL application to the Office of Graduate Admissions before the semester of your placement. You must also have completed, or be enrolled in, EDIL 910 or EDIL 920.
• Every placement also needs its own field experience application.

Field experience applications are due to the Field Experience Office by October 1 for spring placements and by February 15 for fall placements.

For current deadlines, the application guide and the Field Experience Handbook, see Field Placement & Licensure Information.
 

Staying in Good Standing

To move on to each later field experience and to student teaching, you need a GPA of at least 2.8 in your education courses and at least 2.8 across all your FSU courses. A grade below B- in any course leads to a review by the Professional Standards Committee.

Teaching means working closely with children, families, colleagues and supervisors. As required for state program approval, the Professional Standards Committee reviews whether each candidate has the academic skills and personal qualities that teaching requires, and decides whether you continue through the program.
 

Taking a Semester Off

If you need to step away for a semester:

1. Tell the PBTL program.
2. If you've applied for a school placement, tell the Coordinator of Field Placements as early as you can. If you've already been placed, tell the school too.
3. To come back, send a letter asking to be reinstated. It must arrive at least one month before course registration opens.

When you return, the program requirements in effect at that time apply to you, even after one semester away. After a longer break, expect a fuller review of your record. FSU may ask you to repeat requirements completed more than five years ago.
 

Finishing the Program

When you complete PBTL, it's noted on your FSU academic record. You'll submit an official transcript when you apply to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for your license.