A Day in the Life of Three Clinical Professors

Abstract

Clinical professors come in an assortment of makes, models, and tyles. A br ef description of Project Turn-About is necessary. Project Turn-About is a field-centered approach to training teachers. The project is located in Garfield Elementary School, Everett, Washington, which is an inner-city low-income area. The school has an enrollment of 538 children, kindergarten through grade five. It is divided into four instructional areas, with each area containing from 90 to 165 children. Five clinical professors were hired. Two were paid by the local school district. Three were staff members of Western Washington State College. Four of the cinical professors are each assigned to an instructional area; the fifth is responsible for special education and program evaluation. The school is also staffed by three administrators, two reading specialists, one school counselor, one li brarian, one Physical Education specialist, and fourteen certified teachers. Psychologist and speech therapist services are available through the school district. Six ad ditional certified teachers are graduate students of West ern Washington State College. Five of these serve as half-time teachers and spend one-half of their time pur suing master's programs. Twenty-five student teachers are present, working in a traditional student teacher role. The school also hosts thirty-three laboratory students. These students are completing two quarters of their junior year in the Education Department of Western Washington State College. Their role is to spend ap proximately one-half of their time in contact with chil dren as para-professionals and one-half of their time in completing academic work. Within this elementary school framework, the clinical professors pursue a num ber of roles, which are herein outlined: A) The clinical professor has a classroom of about 26 children. He keeps records, conducts parent confer ences, and is expected to be present in the classroom at least one-half of the school day. B) The clinical professor is the team leader for an in structional area. In this role, he has the responsibil ity of building an effective team for instruction of pupils and training of student teachers and laboratory students. The responsibility includes supervision, scheduling, handling of inter-staff conflicts, leader ship in area meetings, and communication of adminis trative desires and decisions to the area staff.