Thanks for answering the questions

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Thanks for answering the questions
By Cathy-Dee

Dear Hurt,

Thank you for clarifying the situation as it does make a difference for how we can help you. I would repost this on the student teacher board if you haven't already. There are many of us who do go to those
boards to offer advice when we have extra time.
Having had a student teacher for the first time myself it is difficult to say why your cooperating teacher evaluated you the way she did. We are not trained in evaluating and often we do refer back to our student-teaching days. There is a form as well which often asks us to write down anything negative we did see. So sometimes we end up

focusing on the negative more than the positive because of the system.

You should bring this up with your faculty consultant - I'm assuming they will be evaluating you as well - they will let you know what steps to take.

As a teacher I want the student teacher to have a great experience and to learn from what she or he is doing. I think a way you can handle this is to ask her for feedback more regularly - don't wait for your next evaluation. Also go to her about this one, let her know that you really want to improve and that this evaluation has really been bothering you. Then ask her can you give me some suggestion on how I can change this or improve on this. Now you should get the verbal feedback you need and she will hear that the evaluation really got to you without you actually confronting her and having her feel she needs to be defensive.

As far as determining the subjects - that is in the realm of the cooperating teacher. Remember this is her class and she may have specific units she wants to teach herself. She may also feel in the time you have with her the subjects or topics she has chosen will work best and cause the least amount of disruption. And this is preparing you for the real world of teaching - we do not always get to choose what we teach. We can train for one grade level and end up in the opposite. We can love teaching art and yet never be able to because someone else teaches it to give us our prep time.

Good luck with your student teaching. I will endeavor to check out the student teaching board over the next few weeks in case you want to post again about this topic or even something new.