Application Submission Process:

1. Contact/meet with faculty mentor (departmental advisor) to ensure that you qualify for admission to student teaching. During this initial meeting, you should ensure that your faculty mentor completes and signs your Curriculum Sheet reflecting all of your coursework including courses in which you are currently enrolled. Your faculty mentor is responsible for uploading your signed curriculum sheet during the application approval process.
2. You will need to complete and sign the following documents (as you will have to upload them when you complete the online application process in TK20):
   • • • • MS Department of Education Code of Ethics Oath [click on link to complete]
         • Complete the MS Association of Educators/National Educators Association Student Membership and print documentation of your membership. Student Program – Mississippi Association of Educators (maetoday.org) [click on link to complete; then click on “sign-up online using a credit card”; once you reach the membership category section of the application, select “Aspiring Educator”]
         • Secure a professional photograph (headshot) of yourself (it does not have to be taken by a professional photographer).
         • Licensure Advisory Form [click on link to complete] http://z4j.gmbot.net/teacherquality/files/2021/04/LICENSURE-ADVISORY-FORM-1.pdf
         • Each of the aforementioned documents will need to be scanned to a digital format so that you may upload them into the COEHD Admission to Student Teaching Application in TK20. You will need to upload each of these documents in order to complete the application.
3. Log into TK20 using the following link: http://jsums.tk20.com/ Your username is your J-Number and your password is your NetID password. (Note: Never create a TK20 account. If you have logged in before, but are unable to now you may need to reset your NetID in PAWS. If you are a music, English, math, or physics education major that has never used TK20, you may not have an account. Please send an email to TK20help@gmbot.net).
4. Once you log in click on “Applications” in the menu and select the appropriate “Admission to Student Teaching Application” based on your major (i.e. Elementary Education majors should select the elementary application, Music Education majors the music application, and so on).
5. Complete the application and notify your faculty mentor by email that it is ready for review. Once your application has been reviewed, you will receive a message in TK20 stating whether it has been approved, denied, or pending submission of additional documents.
6. Complete the Verification of Lawful Presence Form and submit the required form to the Mississippi Department of education. The Verification of Lawful Presence form and documents must be uploaded into your MDE ELMS account for your license to be issued. The form may be found at the following website: http://www.mdek12.org/sites/default/files/Offices/MDE/OA/OTL/Teacher%20Center/form_vlp_2021.01.pdf

*email the Director of Teacher Education at teacherquality@gmbot.net if you have questions concerning this process.

1. You will also have to pay for and complete a background check prior to beginning student teaching (unless you remain with the school district that you were assigned to in EDCI 401 Unit Planning, Assessment, and Classroom Management. The paid background check completed within EDCI 401 lasts for a full year). Be sure to check with the Director of Teacher Education prior to paying for a background check in order to ensure that you utilize the background check vendor serving the school district where you will be assigned to student teach.

*Approval in TK20 is only your advisor’s recommendation. You are not officially admitted until you receive correspondence from the Director of Teacher Education stating that you have been admitted.

If you have questions concerning the application process for Teacher Education or Student Teaching, please contact the Center for Teacher Quality at 601-979-4111 or email teacherquality@gmbot.net.