Student Teaching and Observations are great.
They give you a chance to see if you are really cut out to teach.
I have never had a student teacher. I keep moving rooms and grade levels! My principal is nice enough to ask for volunteers, and I have never had the right scenario to feel comfortable volunteering.
Here are our thoughts on student teaching:
*Don't be shy! It's ok to take a day or two to settle in, but after that, start showing the teacher and students your personality. They want to get to know you and your style!
*Ask questions! From the student teacher point of view, the teacher you are working with can't read your mind. If you are the teacher, you have a chance to learn from your student teacher, why not pick their brain a little!
*Make a plan together. If you are hosting a student teacher you have probably decided what you want to hand over to them, but it's just like working with your students, the student teacher will likely want to set some goals for themselves. (The teacher I student taught with did this, and I truly appreciated it. He asked me what I wanted to start teaching first, and how much support I was comfortable with.)
*It's ok to teach things differently. This is a hard on teachers who have been incharge of their class, but remember you can learn from a student teacher, too. They have fresh ideas, be open to them. For the student teacher, you may see some great lessons, you might want to use, even if they don't fit your style.
*Work with the whole grade level! Teaching is not a solo activity. For the student teacher, think of all the ideas you can get from multiple teachers. For the teacher, encourage them to be part of the team, they will soon be a teacher, and have to learn how to be a part of a team. (When I was a student teacher, the teacher I worked with would arrange for me to observe another classroom once a week, it was an awesome chance to see different management styles. He also had me attend all the meetings so I knew what I was getting into.)
Lastly, a lesson I learned from my student teaching experience.
The teacher I worked with gave me this piece of advice.
Enjoy your last semester in college. Don't spend all your free time doing teacher stuff. You have the rest of your life to do that. If you need to leave early one day for a job interview that's okay! Your goal is to learn as much as you can, and to get a job.
Do you have advice about student teaching? What was your student teaching experience like?
EmilyK & Antoinette
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