Summer 2020 Practicum Schedule and Information | April 24, 2020

Good morning Summer Students, Field Instructors and Faculty-Field Liaisons,

We hope this email finds you well and in good spirits. The Summer 2020 practicums are scheduled to start on Monday April 27 under very different circumstances than usual. This practicum experience will look different for each student. Some students have done some training/volunteering/webinars/Zoom meetings and have already accumulated some practicum hours, and some students have not yet had this opportunity. Some students will be able to do more hours of remote learning per week than others. Each learning and supervision situation is unique but we do need to apply some overarching structure and milestone dates to the Summer practicum course.

The official final day of Summer practicum is Friday September 4, 2020. The Final evaluations must be submitted by September 4, 2020. If Final evaluations cannot be submitted by September 4, an Extension Request form will be required.

The Practicum Office has set the following (very flexible) schedule for the Summer 2020 practicums. The evaluation dates have been chosen based on an assumed average of 28 hours of remote learning per week. Some practicums may be more than 28 hours per week, and some will be fewer.

Start: Monday April 27 (flexible)
Orientation Checklist due: Tuesday April 28 (or YOUR day 2)
Learning Contract due: Wednesday May 13 (or YOUR day 10)
Midterm evaluations due: at 169 practicum hours completed (approximately Friday June 5)
Final evaluations due: at 337.5 practicum hours completed (approximately Wednesday July 22) OR Friday September 4 (whichever comes first)

In order to set evaluation dates in the PAS, we have chosen Friday June 5 as the Midterm evaluations due date and Wednesday July 22 as the Final evaluations due date. Please note: These are FLEXIBLE dates and will not apply to every practicum. They are simply to provide a framework of milestones to help plan for completing 337.5 hours. Again, all students have until September 4 to complete 337.5 remote learning hours.

The evaluations will be available on the PAS to work on two weeks before the due dates: Midterm Friday May 22 and Final Wednesday July 8.

Students: when you are approaching the 169-hour mark, you must contact your FFL to let them know when you will be submitting your Midterm self-evaluation. Please also coordinate with your field instructor to ensure that they do the Midterm at the same time. Please do the same when you are approaching the 337.5-hour mark and are ready to submit the Final evaluations. You must keep your FFL aware of your progress and accumulation of hours so that they can approve your evaluations in a timely manner. If you are able to create a proposed schedule of hours for your practicum, please do so and send it to your FFL.

If you find that you will reach 169 hours (or 337.5 hours for the final) before the PAS opening dates (May 22 and July 8), you must email your FFL with a request for your evaluation to be made available early on the PAS. Please be prepared to provide your FFL with documentation of your hours and learning activities. If your FFL approves this request, they will forward the request to the Practicum Office to have the evaluation opened early.

Please keep a careful and detailed log of your remote learning hours, both within your practicum and in any “extra-curricular” training/volunteer/webinars that you do. Remember that any “extra-curricular” hours that you wish to count toward your practicum hours must be approved by your field instructor and be worked into your Learning Contract. The Learning Contract is a collaborative and dynamic document. Please work closely with your field instructor to set learning goals and identify activities to reach those goals.

This will be a new experience for all of us and there will be challenges along the way. With flexibility, patience and consistent, open communication we can support each other and create valuable learning experiences. Please don’t hesitate to approach your field instructor, FFL and the Practicum Office with any questions or concerns.

The Practicum Office
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
University of Toronto
practicum.fsw@utoronto.ca