Clinical Experiences 

Clinical experiences are the pre-student teaching opportunities to observe, tutor, and assist small group and whole class instruction in schools and other agencies. A minimum of 100 clinical hours are earned before student teaching and at least 50 of these hours must be completed in diverse settings.

Pre-student teaching clinical experiences are completed in coursework prior to student teaching and can begin as early as freshman year. 

Clinical Experiences Checklist: Before starting a clinical experience

1. Submit an Illinois State Police fingerprint Criminal Background Check (CBC) to the TEC. 
   • CBC's expire one year from the date the CBC was processed by the state police.
   • Complete CBC at least 2 weeks before start of clinical to allow for processing.
2. Check with your course instructor for information about your site. See clinical options below:
   • Secondary & K-12
   • SED: Deaf & Hard of Hearing | Learning & Behavior | Low Vision & Blindness
   • TCH: Early Childhood | Elementary | Elementary Bilingual/Bicultural | Middle Level
3. Complete district/agency requirements for your assigned site.
   • District 87 - No self-placement allowed.
   • Unit 5 - No self-placement allowed.
   • Metcalf & UHigh - No self-placement allowed.
   • Other school placement
   • Chicago Public Schools
   • Bus trips
   • Community Center or Non-School Agency
4. Review the:

• • Site Code of Conduct
  • Rights and Responsibilities
  • ISU Student Code of Conduct
  • Illinois Educator Code of Ethics

5. Make sure to have appropriate Insurance Coverage. 
6. Transportation to all clinical experience sites is the responsibility of the teacher candidate.

Resources: After completing a clinical experience

**August 2019 the online Pre-Student Teaching document is transitioning from our multiple step documentation system, in hopes of making it easier for students.  When entering your hours, you will start directly on the class search page, where you can enter your search criteria to easily find and verify your course/professor.  When you click on the class, you will be taken to the experience document page for entry of your information.  During the August transition, several of our resources will be offline until we have time to update them this Fall.  If you have documentation questions during this transition time, please see our current resources below or email clinicalquestions@ilstu.edu 

• 1. Complete your clinical experience.
     • While completing your clinical experience, document the dates, hours, name of teacher(s) and school where you are completing your experience.
  2. Submit the online clinical experience document in the Teacher Education section of your Student Center at My.IllinoisState.edu.
  • Your online clinical experience should be submitted by the end of the semester in which they were completed to allow your professor to approve the hours.  Only approved hours will be counted towards your accumulate total.
  • If your school or cooperating teacher is not in the system, please e-mail ClinicalQuestions@illinoisstate.edu and include the following: cooperating teacher name, school, district, town, and grade level.
  • School and Organization Clinical Experience Guide - Gives details on diversity, community organizations and teachers.  It also includes a large list of commonly used schools and organizations which includes the name, ID number and city to assist with documentation.  The list is broken down into sections by commonly used schools in the Bloomington-Normal area, surrounding areas (typically within 75 miles), Chicago public schools and study abroad.
  3. Instructional resources for document completion:
     • Instructional video will be updated during the Fall 2019 semester.
     • Use this flowchart to ensure you enter your hours correctly.
     • For assistance with documenting your hours, please use this handout.
  4. Viewing your hours -
     • Use this handout for directions to the "View my clinical hours" page.  You can see all documented clinical hours and their current status.  It also gives you totals for approved clinical and divers hours.
  5. Problems - if you encounter documentation issues (i.e. school or cooperating teacher is missing, etc.), please e-mail ClinicalQuestions@IllinoisState.edu.  For other questions about signing up to attend a site, please refer to course information, wiki pages, and/or course instructors.