Do you remember your student teaching experience? I sure do. Mine
was loads of hard work and at times terrifying—sort of like learning to fly a
helicopter! 🙂 Yet I would say it is what most prepared me for the classroom.
Later, as a practicing teacher, I was fortunate enough to work with student teachers myself. In fact, the April I left my teaching position to join the staff at The Mailbox, one of my former student teachers stepped in and taught my kiddos for the last two months of school. It was a win-win for my students and me!
What are your best tips for working with student teachers? You may have suggestions based on your own experience or on the experiences you’ve shared with education majors. Or perhaps you are a student teacher right now and have some tips and suggestions to share. Please include your ideas for welcoming and saying farewell to student teachers too!
All ears!
Diane
I have had student observers assigned to my classroom but never a student teacher. In my district, it is frowned upon to put a student teacher in an early childhood classroom. Since pre-k classrooms have aides, having a student teacher is viewed as having “extra help.” It’s so sad.
Having a student teacher is NOT about having “extra help.” It’s about learning! It’s about opening the eyes of a college student to the world of early childhood!
Has anyone else experienced this? Or is it just my district?
I was lucky enough to spend half of my student teaching in a kinder classroom. The other half of my student teaching was in a 4th-grade room. I loved both experiences — but my heart lies with early childhood. 🙂
I too only get student observers. I have to say that just having those additional hands for one day is great. I would love to have a student plus my assistant.
What I loved the most was an open minded teacher. Usually student teachers come in having been taught to make learning fun so they want to do a lot of hands on interactive teaching and learning and when you have a teacher that is open to that then the experience is fun and rewarding for everyone. My kinder classroom was filled with projects, and fun games and activities that made the kids think they were just having a good time and when asked how was school, they never said “boring”. I had the same find of teacher when I student taught in 4th grade as well, our room for Open House was amazing!
I am on my second student teacher this year. They always come in excited and eager to get their hands dirty!
The biggest thing I find that I really have to “teach” them is how to work with parents. Many of the student teachers are so young that it is very difficult for them to talk to parents as “equals” (since many are old enough to be their own parents!) We role-play and I also throw out different possible situations and conversation in which they might be involved. I always am asking things like “How would you tell a parent about Johnny hitting his friend today?”
I start prepping the parents a month early about the student teachers last day. I send home a piece of tagboard with each child, ask them to draw a picture of themself and the student teacher and then have them send them in “secretly.” Once they are all in, I make them into a book for her with ribbon.
I also take a class group picture with the teacher earlier in the semester and use that as the cover for the book.
Many parents ask what they can buy as a little gift and I always suggest teacher things that she can use in her own classroom. (Stickers, scissors, stamps, bulletin board items, nametags, etc.)
I have never had a student teacher but I have experienced it! It was very awful for me and I still have nightmares about it. So advice I can give to those with student teachers is to try to be positive and realise that you don’t know everything and you can learn from your student teacher as well. I remember after the first day of school my supervisor said to me, “You were pretty good today – I thought you would be horrible.” That pretty much set the tone for the whole experience and I hated almost every second I spent with her.
I have been fortunate to supervise several student teachers in my career. I love working with them and always feel that I learn as much from them as they do from me!
Many years ago, I developed a Student Teacher notebook. It’s a spiral notebook with dividers that begins with a letter of introduction from me and a picture of my family. Other entries include: a copy of our crisis plan, grading scale and grade card, labeled picture of staff, building diagram, beginning teacher suggested resources,list of favorite teacher resources and websites,and much, much more! All my student teachers have commented about the usefulness of this notebook.
I certainly remember my student teaching experience. It was in a first grade classroom with a wonderful teacher who gave me the strength to try my own ideas, suggestions to make them better, and a wealth of classroom experience. It was a joy!
I have had student observers and a student teacher. They have been basically good experiences. I make sure I know ahead of time what the expectations are for the students and try to give them suggestions where they need them but the opportunity to put their own spin on the lessons.
I appreciate the extra hands since I am in the classroom alone with the exception of a tutor who takes some students in small groups 3x each week.