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The student teaching experience is often an important capstone experience of teacher preparatory programs. Student teaching is designed to provide college students who are preparing to be educators with experience in an actual classroom while supervised by a certified teacher. The purpose of this study was to determine preservice teachers' perceptions of important elements of the student teaching experience both before and after the student teaching experience. The preservice teachers perceived the most important element of the student teaching experience was the cooperating teacher/student teacher relationship. Additionally, there was a negative change in the perceived level of importance for all students to have an SAE requirement, with accurate record books and diversity within the students' SAEs from much importance to medium importance. When placing preservice teachers for the student teaching internship, teacher educators might consider placing a higher emphasis on the cooperating teacher/student teacher relationships. Secondly, when placing preservice teachers for the student teaching internship, teacher educators could choose internship sites that emphasize SAE programs and have diverse facilities. Finally, we recommend future research could be conducted to further explore the role of the cooperating teacher and the important aspects of the cooperating teacher/student teacher relationship.

Since its discovery in the southeastern United States in 2004, soybean rust (SBR) has been variable from year to year. Caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, SBR epidemics in Florida are important to understand, as they may serve as an inoculum source for other areas of the country. This study examined the first disease detection date, incidence, and severity of SBR in relation to environmental data, growth stage, and maturity group (MG3, M05, MG7) in soybean sentinel plots (225 m²) across north Florida from 2005 through 2008. The majority (91%) of the initial infections were observed in MG5 and MG7 soybeans, with plots not becoming infected until growth stage R4 or later. Precipitation was the principle factor affecting disease progress, where disease increased rapidly after rain events and was suppressed during dry periods. On average, plots became infected 30 days earlier in 2008 than 2005. In 2008, there was a significant increase in disease incidence and severity associated with the occurrence of Tropical Storm Fay, which deposited up to 380 mm of rainfall in north Florida. The results of this study indicate that climatic and environmental factors are important in determining the development of SBR in north Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]