student teachers

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Home : 2008 : April : 5

student teachers
By Combow

I have had 7 student teachers with only one really bad situation.
Cons:
giving up the kiddies,
they will teach things differently than you would,
giving up control,
it's
like having another student in your classroom at times,
students play the 2 adults against each other
this year with 30 students in my room, there is no way I could have fit another teacher in my classroom with there own desk space.

Pros:
having another adult in the classroom,
having a ST makes me a more

reflective teacher,
sometimes the ST teaches me a thing or two,
take advantage of team teaching.

Consider the time of the year you might have a ST. Personally, I don't like Fall (although that might be the best time of the year for the ST.) In our state our state testing is in October, I cannot hand my students over to the ST until after that, then I want to establish content area routines, and I am still "programming" my students about my behavior expectations so I am still not willing to hand over the classroom. I'm not as willing to share my kiddies at that time of the year.

A second semester ST seems to meet my needs better because our classroom routines and expectations have been established and I am ready to share the kiddies, and if the ST does things differently, it is often a good time to mix things up.

I'm impressed that the college is offering a class in being a cooperating teacher. With my 7 STs I haven't gotten much guidance other than some papers. Take advantage of the course.
Is it possible to take the course, and then make your decision?

P.S. Interview your prospective ST and trust your gut feelings. The really bad situation I had a gut feeling that it wasn't going to be a good one, and it wasn't. I didn't turn it down because I didn't want to hurt any feelings. In the end when I had to fail the student teacher, we were well beyond hurt feelings. But I felt I had to do it to protect the integrity of our profession and save the future students. It wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone.