TO: Teaching Assistants who work in UW-Madison Teacher Education Programs
FROM: Ken Zeichner, Associate Dean for Teacher Education
RE: Important Information about State Teacher Licensing Requirements
DATE: August 25, 2008

To download a word document version of this letter, click here

This memo is directed to all teaching assistants who teach required courses and/or supervise required field experiences in our pre-service teacher education programs.  If you are one of these people then you need to be aware of some basic information about teacher licensing requirements in the state of Wisconsin. Information about the state requirements in relation to each of our teacher education programs can be found at http://education.wisc.edu/pi34. This site lists all of our programs and the specific standards, rules and statutes that are addressed by required courses and field experiences in each program. By October 1, we also hope to have all of the course syllabi and field experience program handbooks uploaded to this site so you will be able to see what your students have already and will experience in the rest of your program.

When the licensing law (PI34) went into effect in 2004, our faculty decided which standards, rules and statutes would be addressed in specific courses and field experiences and the types of artifacts that students would place in their portfolios to demonstrate that they have met the requirements.

Basically I need two things from you by October 1st. If you are teaching a required course or supervising a required field experience in one of our teacher education programs, please upload the syllabus for your course or seminar to our password protected PI34 site through your Portfolio Account.  To do this, go to http://portfolios.education.wisc.edu and click on Faculty, TAs, and Instructional Staff (at the top) to access instructions for the simple process of uploading your syllabus. You do not need to upload a separate field experience handbook for each section of a practicum or student teaching experience. One handbook will be sufficient. We would like to have uploaded the syllabi from all sections of required courses and all syllabi from the seminar groups of individual supervisors. If you are supervising students in a required practicum or student teaching experience, you also need to upload a copy of your CV. We need to make sure that all of the supervisors in our programs meet the requirements in PI34. If you do not already have an account in our portfolio system, EPCS will provide information on how you can obtain one.

Second, you will be responsible at the end of the semester for recording whether your students have met the various standards, rules and statutes that are addressed by the course. Go to http://portfolios.education.wisc.edu and click on Faculty, TAs and Instructional Staff at the top to get instructions on how to record this information or contact EPCS at epcs-online@education.wisc.edu or 262-1755.

The portfolio site will also provide you with information about portfolio support for students and for integrating the portfolio into your instruction/supervision. The website and our teacher assessment system are managed by EPCS (Education Portfolios and Career Services) and there is information on the site about how to obtain assistance if you have any difficulties in uploading your syllabus and CV or in recording information about student performance.

Thank you in advance for uploading the information noted above. I want to emphasize that the website to which you be uploading things is a password protected internal website only available to those with UW-Madison ID numbers (the syllabi) or to instructors (the assessment information for specific students). Your faculty supervisor has also been informed about everything in this memo. Please consult with him or her if you have questions.