Student Teaching!

My Tips To You!

(coming soon)

Helpful Links On This Topic

Be Prepared For Your First Evaluation
27 tips for starting the year off right
12 tips for communicating with parents
Advice from Harry Wong
Ten Tips for Student Teachers

Tips From Teachers For Student Teachers


A compiled list from the teachersnet chatboards and various rings.
Beginning Teachers Chatboard
Student Teaching ChatBoard
These two boards are perfect places for new teachers to visit daily. I suggest you click on a link above and bookmark the two sites.

I keep my eyes open for various topics being discussed on mailrings and chatboards. Then I compile the ideas to a page. It is so nice to have many ideas in one place. New ideas are added often.

Many thanks to the teachers that have shared their ideas. So many teachers have wonderful hearts!

I absolutely love my student teaching experience! I am in a first grade class in New Jersey and I am having a wonderful time. I am very organized (neurotic.. some would say) so I think that has defiently helped me. The winter break before I student taught, I started making lessons and found out what I would be teaching the students. It is important to make contact with your cooperating teaching before you start. Good Luck!

Sure, buy some books meant to emphasize the positive in teaching. Also study classroom management-- buy "The First Few Days of School:How to be an Effective Teacher" by Harry Wong. And keep up your physical and emotional health-- get enough sleep, keep up an exercise program...this can make all the difference in the world in terms of attitude, energy and the ability to think on your feet

I had a wonderful student teaching experience, and I think that is mostly due to the fact that I got to choose my mentor. I learned so much, but I still don't think anything can fully prepare you for having your own classroom. My mentor went the extra mile for me by telling the administration how great I was doing. They liked a couple of us student teachers so well that they created a brand new position for us in the district to keep us there. I was offered the position of permanent sub with teacher salary and benefits on my last day of student teaching! My mentor talked the principal into hiring me as her long term sub for when she had her baby.

I just finished my second week full time teaching first grade. It is great because I get to be with the kids I student taught; it was an easy transition for all involved. As for next year...I really like the district, and I have already signed a letter of intent. I will end up in first or
second grade, I imagine, and I will probably be teaching with a girl who student taught next door to me in the fall. We were going through pretty much the same thing, so it was very easy to become such close friends.

Another reason my student teaching experience was so good was there were seven student teachers (including myself) at my school. We had an amazing supervisor! In fact, it turned out that he was my mentor's supervisor when she did her student teaching. Small world.

 

Advice...be prepared, ask the principal or vice principal to observe/evaluate a lesson and learn as much as you possibly can in the short amount of time you are there. Don't be afraid to screw up, because you will. Just remember to reflect on everything. Also be prepared to not always get a long with your mentor/cooperating teacher. No matter how much you like, admire or respect your mentor, whenever you are working that closely with a person, problems are bound to arise.

Ok, I just really felt like sharing. Sorry if this was too long, but I guess you didn't have to read it, right? :) Good luck to all student teachers and future student teachers. It was an exciting time in my life that I am glad is over now.

Monica

I've been a co operating teacher many times, and here are my tips.

-Be there bright and early. Never, ever, be late.
-Listen and take in everything. Ask lots of questions.
-Whatever your course outline says, know it.
-Whatever assignments you may have to complete during your time there, let the teacher know. He/she wants to help.
-If you are struggling with something, or a lesson bombs, don't be too hard on yourself. Talk openly with the teacher about what you learned from the experience.
-Always be reflective. There are no one shot deals in teaching. There's always something to remember for next time.
-Dress professionally. (cleavage and minis are out. I know I shouldn't have to mention this, but I've had to mention it in real life way more times than I ever would have thought.)
-Speak professionally. Every single time you talk to a class or a student you are modelling an ideal. Slang words that aren't foul but are not particularly desirable should stay at home.
-Don't ever miss a deadline. If you are teaching a lesson in math Monday morning, make sure it happens.
-Look for subtle signs of feedback, too. If the teacher shoots you a look in the middle of a lesson (rather than interrupting and derailing what you are doing) try to adjust for it right away, and discuss it later.
-Don't take it personally if something goes wrong, or the teacher has a bad day. Smile, and chalk it up to experience.-Do a little more than your course outline expects. Teachers are looking for students who show initiative. If you are to do X% of the teaching at a certain point, do not keep mentioning that or loudly object if one day you end up with X+5%.
-Don't ask if you are needed to go out for recess duty with the teacher, just go. Shows initiative.
-Go to the staff room for lunch and recess with your teacher some of the time. Staff rooms are intimidating, but you need to build relationships with all school staff.

Okay, sorry that was so long.

I guess my overall bit of advice is, remember that student teaching is like the world's longest job interview. The teaching assistant in the class next door may be married to the principal of a nearby school. You want to make a good impression on everyone because you never know who might be connected to someone critical to your future job search.

Finally, have fun. That is one way, for sure, to show everyone that you are a natural. If you look like you are enjoying every minute of your time there, despite the heavy workload and all the stress that comes out of it, people will warm up to you immediately, want to help as much as possible, and see you as a future professional.

Good luck. Just the fact that you asked the question tells me that you are interested and have initiative. It will take you far. Enjoy!

As a recent graduate who's just been thru this here's my advice:
Things will go wrong. Lessons will backfire, kids will push you, your teacher will shoot down your ideas, and so on.... You're trying to do something new, something hard, and beforyou succeed you will fail. There will be days where you go home and can't possibly eat enough chocolate or drink enough wine to make it better! But things will also go well. You'll create a lesson that will engage the kids and go perfectly. Your teacher will praise you for things that you thought you were doing terribly at. Kids will tell you that you're their favorite teacher, and that they really learn things from you. You'll learn, you'll grow, you'll make friends with teachers and start to feel like a part of the class.

Practical advice:
-talk to your teacher constantly - run lessons by them, management ideas or problems, ask them what they thought of what you did - you'll never have this chance again to have someone give you detailed feedback and to learn from them so
take advantage of it
-try things - again, this is the best time to try new ideas since you're allowed to fail
- talk to the kids - ask them what they like about your teaching and what you could do better
- relax and enjoy it - if you're nervous the kids will pick it up - relax, have fun, and enjoy it

Hope that helps maybe! Good luck Ashli

Oh, I would say relax and enjoy it. Try to not look at your assigned teacher as someone who is continually finding fault. Some are,laughing out loud, trying to help with some many points of improvement all at once. Just take this in stride (with a smile) and try to improve each day.

Understand something, that we experienced teachers already know, that what we are as teachers will never be complete. We are always changing and learning to teach. Just look at your experience as the beginning of a long walk, not a run. We really never stop learning to teach. rick rick lynn