Supporting Resident Educators

The Resident Educator Program is a multi-year, comprehensive program in which Ohio school districts provide a coordinated set of supports for teachers during their first few years in the classroom. Program Coordinators, Mentors, and Facilitators play a vital role in guiding Resident Educators through this critical time in their careers.

Responsibilities for Each Role

  • Mentors:

    In Years 1 and 2, Resident Educators are paired with Mentors who provide individualized professional development through regular interactions with teachers.В  Mentors facilitate professional conversations with Resident Educators and support them through co-teaching or modeling of key practices.

  • Facilitators:

    In Year 3, Resident Educators begin working with a Facilitator to prepare for the RESA. The Facilitator’s focus is on supporting the Resident Educator through open-ended and probing questions to prompt decisions about instructional choices of evidence as well as providing technological support around video and uploading documents.

  • Program Coordinators:

    In addition to individualized assistance, the Resident Educator Program is supported by Program Coordinators who plan, implement, and report on the program for the district. Program coordination includes working with principals to select and assign Mentors and Facilitators. Program Coordinators ensure that Mentors attend training and are certified. They also identify Resident Educators eligible for the RESA and register the information in the CORE database to monitor the progress of the Resident Educator Program in their district. Should a Resident Educator require an accommodation or modification of the Lesson Reflection because the teaching environment does not allow recording of students, it is the Program Coordinator’s responsibility to assist with submission of the RESA Modification Request to the Ohio Department of Education.

Guidelines for Appropriate Support

Whether you perform all these roles or only one of them, your goal is to support Resident Educators as they progress through the Teaching and Learning Cycle and help prepare Resident Educators to submit evidence of their development through the Lesson Reflection. Ultimately, however, completion of the Lesson Reflection is the Resident Educator’s responsibility. Below are some Do and Don’t rules of thumb to inform your support. 

Do
  • Register Resident Educators who are eligible to take the RESA in Ohio’s CORE database.
  • Engage Resident Educators in formative experiences in preparation for the RESA and, more importantly, a career of reflective practice.
  • Review the RESA Guidebook with Resident Educators to help them understand the requirements of the Lesson Reflection and how it will be scored.
  • Ask open-ended questions to deepen understanding of the specific areas of the assessment without editing or leading Resident Educators in a specific direction.
  • Examine Score Report results with Resident Educators, using assessor feedback along with the Lesson Reflection domains and the candidates’ submissions to discuss areas for improvement.
Don’t
  • Help identify specific units or videos to include as submission evidence.
  • Develop or edit Resident Educators’ video evidence or Video Commentary and Reflection Form responses.
  • Provide feedback on how to change actual submissions and point Resident Educators in a different direction from what has been submitted.
  • Use candidate credentials to log in to the RESA Submission System.
  • Share Resident Educators’ actual video evidence and Video Commentary and Reflection Form responses with others.
A Note on Resident Educator Support and Submitting Evidence from Any Year in the RE Program:
In the first few years of the RE Program, it is permissible and even encouraged to work with Resident Educators to develop mock RESA submissions as part of the work you do to mentor Resident Educators and familiarize them with the RESA submission process. Please remind Resident Educators that they may not submit these materials as part of their RESA submissions because they must submit their own authentic work. Resident Educators may submit any instructional evidence and form responses on which they have not received direct feedback.

What Teachers Are Expected to Do

Lesson Reflection
Work to Submit:
  • Teaching and Learning Context Form
  • Video Recording of the Lesson
  • Video Commentary and Reflection Form

The Ohio RESA asks Resident Educators to complete the Lesson Reflection. This task requires the Resident Educator to select an individual lesson, provide context for that lesson, record a video of their teaching, and respond to a short series of questions about that lesson. These Commentary and Reflection questions ask Resident Educators to reflect on their lesson planning, instruction, and the outcomes achieved.

Important RESA Deadlines

Below is a summary of dates to guide your support of Resident Educators who will be taking the RESA during the 2018-2019 school year. В Please make sure to register all Resident Educators who are eligible to take the RESA by November 15, 2018.

  • August 01, 2018
    CORE Registration Opens
  • August 15, 2018
    2018–2019 RESA Guidebook Published
  • October 10, 2018
    Deadline to Request Modifications
  • October 15, 2018
    RESA Submission System Opens
  • November 15, 2018
    Ohio CORE Registration Deadline
  • January 11, 2019
    Lesson Reflection Submission Deadline
  • May 03, 2019
    RESA Score Reports Released