To: Field Instruction II Supervisors
From: Louis Martinez, MSW and John
Sanborn, MSW, Faculty Field II Liaisons
Re: Fall 2004 Field Instruction II Placements
Date: August 31, 2004
As former social work students, social workers, supervisors of students,
and present faculty members, we have learned that the MTSU Field II course
is the most important part of our students' professional education. As their
supervisors, you are each vital to these people's ability to learn what
professional social work practice is about. We welcome you to this opportunity
to make a difference in their development and the continued improvement
of our profession.
We are looking forward to serving in the role of Faculty Liaisons this semester.
We have noticed that there are several of you with whom we have worked
before, and there are several of Prof. Sanborn's former students on the
list of supervisors. There are also several new names to us, new people
to look forward to meeting. One of us will be in contact with each of you
in the near future to arrange for my first visit to your agency and to answer
any questions you may have as our student starts her or his placement with
you. It is very important that you have a sense of how to get started and
you may have questions before we have the opportunity to call. Please feel
free to contact either of us if that is the case, or if you just want to
say "hello." Prof. Martinez's e-mail is lmartine@mtsu.edu. Prof.
Sanborn's phone number is 615:898-2685. His e-mail address is jsanborn@mtsu.edu.
We expect that our students will be valuable contributors to the work of
your agencies this semester. They have taken many classes, successfully
completed Field I, and have been matched to your agency on the basis of
interests and abilities. It will be tempting for you to treat them in many
ways as a staff member to help you serve your clients and communities. This
is generally a good thing. Most of us learn best by doing and students should
feel that you have confidence in them as the professionals which they are
rapidly becoming. There can be a problem with treating them as staff, however,
because students are different in one essential way. Their top priority
should be learning, not performing agency tasks. This means that, if they
become very good at doing one aspect of their work, it may be better for
them to move on to something new rather to continue doing that which makes
them feel comfortable and productive. Please keep this priority in mind:
our profession and ultimately our communities will be best served if these
students continue to grow.
Your encouragement for them to push themselves in new ways throughout the
semester will help that.
The tangible things which we expect you to do for our students this semester
are two: to provide an hour a week of supervision and to complete the mid-semester
and final evaluation forms. We hope that you understand how important these
are. It is clear from my personal experience and my reading of the literature
that quality supervision is the most important determinant of job effectiveness
and satisfaction. We know that there are many demands on your time; most
agencies are overwhelmed by the needs of the people we serve and do not
have the resources to do what we want to do to help. We hope that you will
be committed enough to our students to give them what they most need, your
undivided attention every week, in spite of all those time demands.
The evaluations may be done during the supervisory sessions. They can be
helpful in reminding students what they should be learning as the semester
progresses. It is probably a good idea for the two of you to look at them
together before they are completed at mid-term (Monday, October 25) and
at the end of the semester (Monday, December 6). Please make sure they are
completed by these dates so that students can deliver them to us in class
by the Tuesdays of those weeks. (The actual last day of placement may be
as late as Wednesday, December 8.) These evaluations are the most important
tools that I have for grading students. They should also be helpful vehicles
for your work with the students in reviewing their performance and learning.
I hope that they will function well for both of those purposes.
Thank you so much for your willingness to help our students and the MTSU
Social Work Department. We hope the semester will be fun and rewarding.
Please let me know what we can do to help it be both.