First student teacher

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First student teacher
By Cathy-Dee

This past year I also had my first student teacher and I worried about most of the same things you are worrying about. It ended up being a fantastic experience and I learned as much as she did. It was hard letting her take
the reins, and I just had to remind myself that she was trained and able to do the job. I knew I could always reteach a lesson and that the students do learn from all types of lessons and styles.
At first I was a bit uncomfortable because I'm such a perfectionist (with myself, not others). However now that I've had teacher assistants for the past 5 years, etc., I'm not as worried

about having to be on top of everything all the time. I also realized that when I have an off day even with a student teacher it's a valuable lesson for the student teacher. We cannot always perform 100% all the time.

Things that I think really make or break a student teaching experience.

- making them part of the school team (In both my student teaching experiences I was not made to feel welcome at the school level - the student teachers had a separate lunch area - did not have keys to the room - did not attend staff meetings). I ensured my student teacher as well as others in our school took part in our day-to-day and weekly activities. I even had 2 take part in our professional development committee meetings for our division of which I'm the vice-chairperson.

- feedback - you need to let your student teacher know the things she/he is doing well and where improvements could be made.

- chances - you need to allow them to take chances and to try new things

- modeling - when a lesson went particularly bad for my student teacher, we talked about what had happened (it was more with management than the lesson). Then I modelled the same lesson the next day so she could watch and see how I handled putting the students into groups, etc., The third day she redid the lesson (actually the next part to the lesson but in the same format). She was amazed at how different the lesson went. This allowed her to be successful and to see that a failed lesson is not a major thing, but something to learn from.

- doing something for them when it is time to go. It doesn't have to be elaborate - I bought her a book and a pin and we had a cake in the staffroom and she also was given a mug from the school. I've also kept in touch with her via email too.

- information - make sure they know what is expected of them, what subjects they are to teach, and if you have resources, show them and let them use them. I let my student teacher take home a number of my resources to look through in the evenings.

- an area - give them an area in the room, table, chair, pens, erasers, tape, etc., and put a sign on their desk with their name. This also lets the students know she/he is a teacher.

- bite your tongue - this one was so hard for me at times - but do everything you can to not jump in and take over a lesson that is falling apart or to correct students who are not listening, etc., If you jump in all the time (even though you are just trying to help out), your student teacher will feel insecure about his/her abilities. Now I jumped in a few times at the beginning especially if the kids were very disruptive - then I would discuss things with the student teacher afterwards and by the end of the first week I tried not to jump in at all.

- leave the room - not all the time as the student teacher does need your feedback which you can only give if you are observing. But once they are into lessons - do some paperwork outside the room, put up displays, do a bulletin board, observe in another class for new ideas. This allows the student teacher to really be the teacher for a short while.

- HAVE FUN - enjoy the time you have with your student teacher. It will be a great experience for both of you!