Who here will be teaching in the spring? I will, and I have had my placement since June - I am so excited - my host teacher gave me the book her classes use, and a ton of other helpful stuff - I literally left with an armful of resources. My goal is to have the bulk of my plans done by the end of summer so I can relax and work on tweaking...I really want everything to be perfect. My host teacher is so nice, and I don't want to let her down. I do have a few questions - my plan now is to e-mail her weekly plans as I finish them, is that too much? I don't want to bug her, but I want her to know that I am taking this seriously. Also, would it be weird if I offered to help her set up her room for the fall? I will be doing a 30 hour practicum in her room during the fall semester, so I thought it would be a nice gesture. Who else is student teaching this year?
I will be student teaching in Spring '08 as well... Seems like you found out about your placement really early. I will not find out mine until later this fall.
I helped mine set up and actually went in her rooms some days I didn't have classes to help out and get used to the kids and her style. As for lessons I had to send mine to her a week before, so I don't think it would be to much. She doesn't have to read them but if she wanted to she could. I think it is a great idea and it will help her while you are teaching to know your goal and outcome of the lesson. I think it helped out alot. Good luck and have fun!!!
I have hosted student teachers in my room, and I think it's wonderful you are taking iniative (spelling?) to think about your lessons this far in advance. Depending on what you will be teaching, it may be too early to plan--you never know where the class will be when you start teaching. You might ask your teacher's thoughts before you get started.
Since you are doing your practicum in the Fall, you can ask her to come in to help set-up the classroom. I also wished I had that opportunity when I student taught in the spring. I feel that student teachers should be a part of the beginning of the year. They do not always know how much work (paperwork) is involved until they have their own classroom. So go for it and ask her if you can come in. E-mailing your lesson plans is a great idea. Does your cooperating teacher know how to use the computer to download attachments? What grade are you student teaching? Good luck!!
Yea I would email her and say you want to help in any way and wondered if you could come in and see what the beginning of the year is like. I think the beg. is the hardest part of the year and it is nice to be able to see those days.
I will be teaching four sections of English 11 and two of English 11 honors. When I met her she told me what unit to focus on for my plans, so I am focusing on that unit. jenglish97, I think so - I can transfer everything into a Word document for her to look at.
I wish I had my placement lol. No one in our department has it yet.. which isn't so bad, but they also need to give us placements for our fall internship/clinicals/observation hours, whatever you want to call it. Anyway, count me into the spring student teaching club!
I would take it slow. You really need to base your lessons on the students you will be teaching and I'd hate for you to come up with lessons and then have to do more than just a little tweaking to change them. I just finished student teaching and I think you should just stick with doing the basic stuff for right now[ Your letter to the parents, filing materials away to help with lessons, reading tons of books related to teaching & getting your portfolio started]. I know you are excited to be in the classroom, but let your mentor teacher guide you. You are going to need to probably talk with her about the lessons you do in the class. During my student teaching experience, I used a lot of the lesson plans my mentor had already planned in order to make sure I covered everything I needed to cover. Also, remember you are human & you're going to make mistakes during student teaching...you are not expected to be a perfect teacher & you can't be during student teaching. Don't worry though, if you have a good mentor teacher, then they will not look down on you when you make a mistake, instead they will help you learn from it. The best advice I can give to you is to be your mentor's "best friend". The relationship with your mentor can help you get a job! It is the reason I am working with my mentor as a real teacher in the fall Good luck!
I do have a few questions - my plan now is to e-mail her weekly plans as I finish them, is that too much? I don't want to bug her, but I want her to know that I am taking this seriously. Also, would it be weird if I offered to help her set up her room for the fall? I will be doing a 30 hour practicum in her room during the fall semester, so I thought it would be a nice gesture. I just finished all my student teaching and am preparing for my first year of "real" teaching starting in about 6 weeks. I have a few recommendations, but of course, it's only my opinion. As "I want to teach" stated, you do need to realize those lessons may need to be modified based upon the personalities of each class. The pacing may be different and if you've never student taught before, learning how to time everything during a period takes practice. It's great that you're so eager and I'm sure your master teacher is happy about that. In terms of bombarding her I would consider possibly literally sitting down with her and look at long term planning. See if your ideas align with what she wants to have the kids accomplish. Cater to whatever suits her needs, as in, if she wants you to email every week cool, if she'd rather have updates less frequently then do that, BUT ASK HER. Are you taking education classes in the fall and then teaching in the spring?
oh and helping her set up the room is a great idea. I did that last year. It gives you information about the beginning of the school year that they just can't teach you while you're sitting in your education/credential program classes classes. Help as much as she'll let you, but always yield to her. You don't want to step on toes.
I forgot to mention in my last post that helping her would be a good idea. I always offered to help my mentor teacher throughout student teaching & it taught me a lot.
This Fall I student teach this fall. I will be in first grade for eight weeks, and then in sixth grade for eight weeks. I don't have any books because the first grade is getting new books. But I do have one advantage, I went to elementary school at the school I will be teaching first at. Neither one of my Cooperating Teachers have ever had a student teacher before, but that just means I don't have someones reputation to live up to. Good luck to all student teaching in the spring.
Hi Megan (and others)! I will also begin student teaching in Spring 2008 and imagine I'll be on here with the rest of you looking for ideas as the time draws near. I'm jealous that you have your placement so early. In my program, everyone has their practicum/methods class in the same school and then student teaches in other area schools. It would be really great to be with the same teacher for the whole year and get a feel for it all. Best of luck this school year! ~Briana~
Student Teaching I am also student teaching this fall. We get to select our own schools, so long as we did not go there. I wish I was fortunate enough to get placement information this early. We do not even get to apply for student teaching until the end of August--after all of the back-to-school preparations have already been completed. Best of Luck.
Hi, everyone! I'm also student teaching in spring of '08. At my college, they don't tell us our placement until it's nearly time to start teaching. I see some of you get to ST for two different grade levels. I'm so jealous!
I'm student teaching in Spring 08. I heard that at my college that we get to choose our placement, but they prefer to place us in a grade level we never observed. As a substitute teacher, I have at least observed every grade level, so basically I should be able to choose the teacher I would like to student teach for. If I become a paraprofessional, I still get paid while student teaching. I got to apply soon, but the applications aren't out yet.
did2007- I would recommend requesting a grade that you like, and would like to teach once you graduate and get your teaching license. I just got my first job (teaching 4th grade), and they liked that I student taught 5th grade.
I'll be student teaching in the spring. I'm really excited but I won't receive my placement until much later in the fall. I know which district I'll probably be going into though.
