A reflection on student teaching...

Now that I'm getting into the homestretch of student teaching, I'm ready to write down a few of my thoughts about the whole ordeal/experience bit more about it for the sake of anyone who's interested in knowing about it. Keep in mind this is highly subjective and based on my own experience (and that of friends and colleagues), but maybe it'll be helpful or interesting to somebody out there who is about to start their student teaching semester. If not, it's catharsis for me and that's all that really matters on a Sunday morning in February.

You are on stage:
As an administrator I know once said, Student Teaching is like a perpetual job interview (as is the entire time you are still in a probationary status as a new teacher), so it's absolutely critical that you make a good impression--all the time. This can be exhausting, but you have to have your game face on everyday you are at school (and it probably wouldn't hurt not to let your guard down while you're out in the community as well). Some days this can be difficult to maintain, but it's crucial. It's a good idea to err on the conservative side at first. This is not a time in your life to stroll in 15 minutes late on Monday mornings, or waltz out a bit early on Friday afternoons. I've heard teachers talking about other student teachers they've had or known and one thing that always comes up in those conversations is that the candidate didn't act or dress professionally on some occasion or another and unfortunately that's what he or she is remembered for years later...not rapport with the kids, not innovative teaching ideas...but that fact that so-and-so used to show up late every day wearing flip flops and inappropriate or overly casual or revealing clothes. This is a good time not to be that person, because these are not the kinds of memories you want you "supervisor" to recall when Human Resources starts calling to check references. I tend to overdress for the part, and it's kinda nice knowing that you'll never be evaluated down for lacking a professional appearance. There's plenty of other mistakes you can make while you are student teaching, trust me.

Your appearance is the easiest thing to address, but it has to extend to your attitude and way of carrying yourself. The unpleasant reality is that you have to be in control of yourself all the times because you are going to be in situations where you have to "be the better person" much of the time. You may or may not have a good relationship with your new coworkers. Parents may be a blessing or a curse. You're at a time in your life where you're kind of on your own--no one who hasn't going through student teaching will understand what you are going through. Your field supervisor or cooperating teacher may be absolutely wonderful and easy people to work with--or total nightmares. There's kids in your classroom who will be an absolute joy to teach, and others that may make you wonder which of Dante's circles they came up from. Either way you have to have your game face on while you're student teaching because as the kids never failed to remind me, as a student teacher, you are even lower on the totem pole than the subs in everyone's eyes, and the kids won't hesitate to take you out like a pack of lions on a gazelle if you let your guard down too much. As Ken Peterson said, it's a roller coaster ride, and some days you'll feel really good, and some days you'll want to hole up in a cave somewhere. Be regardless of which kind of day you're having, you have to somehow maintain your dignity and self-control.

Be prepared. Do whatever you can before you start student teaching. Check out books from the library about different styles of classroom management and get some ideas. Look for lesson plans online and save the ones you think you might want to try out. Talk to other teachers about their jobs and ask them how they deal with tough situations. Observe as many teachers as you can--you'll never have another chance like this. Do as much as you can before it starts because after you begin student teaching, you'll be too busy to do much of anything except tread water! Build up your arsenal while you can, and keep your eyes wide open for inspiration...you may not always feel inspired after the rigors of a long day at school.

Another aspect of being prepared is to take care of yourself as much as possible. For me this means to read books that have nothing whatsoever to do with teaching at the end of the day to unwind (you will find yourself thinking of your school, your lessons, and your kids entirely too much). Completely mindless television is highly recommended (and let's just say I'm not generally the type to indulge in that).

I try to make sure I stay healthy as possible (the sudden exposure to a sea of new pathogens floating around in a school will take a severe toll on your system at first). What works for me is trying to get as much sleep as I can, eat well, drink lots of water, religiously wash my hands, and so forth. Two things that have been a godsend to me during this time are ginger tea every morning (ginger is an anti-nasea wonder which helps take the edge off your raw nerves and anxiety), and chamomile/valerian tea at night (to settle the overactive brain that won't shut up and stop obsessing over the minute details of tomorrow's lesson plan). Around here, winter isn't the greatest time for outdoor exercise because it rains non-stop, but I highly recommend taking a break from the florescent lights and going for a walk at least, if nothing else.

Introduce yourself. Don't go into too much detail (avoid TMI!), but at least make sure your Cooperating Teacher has a copy of your resume at the very least, and be sure to introduce yourself to anyone and everyone at your school (Hi my name is so-and-so and I'm so-and-so's student teacher from such-and-such a college). Since I did some time as a classified employee, I tend to socialize with both the teachers and the paraprofessionals, custodians, office staff and so on (who tend to be valuable sources of information). Administrators are still a bit intimidating to me, but I always say hello when I see them in the halls.

When you arrive at the school be prepared to share an autobiographical sketch with your students, and tie it in to your content area somehow if you can. One time I used an "I am from" poem in a 10th grade English class, another time I made a Powerpoint for 6th graders. Don't be afraid to share the quirky stuff with the kids, they seem to get a kick out of knowing that you like goofy cartoons, weird hobbies, and so forth. Some times the kids will want to ask you long drawn out questions on the first day, alternately they will seem jaded and uninterested in who you are and why you're there. My advice is to resist the temptation to spill your guts to the former (BTW the mystery factor is a good thing to have on your side) and not be offended by the latter because they'll come around in time (generally in a week or two) once they get used to your presence.

Learn names. Learn your students' names as soon as you can. Two tricks I've used: get a copy of the seating chart and practice matching names to faces (if your CT doesn't have assigned seats for students, this is something you'll need to change immediately because it's one of the best classroom management tools you can have in your arsenal-control of student interactions); and for high school (especially), get a copy of last year's yearbook (someone is bound to have one) and photocopy the pages that cover your range of students, highlight the pictures in colors depending on what periods the kids are in (pink=1st period, yellow=3rd period, etc...sure they change a lot from one year to the next, but not completely). Other tips to learn names fast: do the attendance for your CT, and be the one to pass out papers and collect quizzes. After a week, you should have most of them down. If you are in a high school setting and have 150+ students a day, it will probably take longer, but no worries--the names you need to know (the troublemakers) you will learn on day 1.

Start out slowly during student teaching and don't dive in too soon. Don't allow anyone-be it your Cooperating Teacher or your field supervisor to push you into taking on more than you can handle. While you may need a gentle nudge and encouragement to move to the next level of responsibility, don't let anyone put more on your plate than you feel ready to handle. What will happen is that if you take on too much too soon, you will:

A: Be totally stressed out (at an already stressful time in your life)
B: Experience something that you are not ready to handle that may completely undermine your confidence in yourself and your self-confidence will undergo a huge setback that will take weeks to recover from.

Both from my own experiences, things I've seen observing other student teachers, and the stories of my classmates in my cohort, I will say this: you don't need to jump in the fire your first time out of the barn. Start out in small steps, and don't let anyone force you to take over a class too soon. You need to practice first, sign hall passes, teach mini-lessons, run a single activity, work with small groups, or whatever. Taking over a class, you WILL be treated like a sub, so there's no need to rush straight into it if you really aren't ready to stand in front of a room full of kids and teach a lesson. When you're ready, you'll still be plenty nervous, but if you're not ready...well let's just say I've seen some real life examples and heard some bad stories from other people who were asked to do it too soon. I've also heard plenty of stories of the opposite scenario, where instead of being pushed into taking over a class, the Cooperating Teacher would not let the student teacher do hardly any solo teaching! You have to trust your instincts on this--on whether you are ready or not, and be willing to stand up for yourself in either case.

Even though you are only going to be in this school for a few months, take the time to build relationships with staff and students. Get involved in professional development opportunities, attend meetings if you can, and go to some school activities and community activities. Get to know your colleagues. It's a small world and you never know who might be willing to help you out later. It's a good idea to spend some time socializing before and after school, when people are less stressed and busy. One thing I really enjoyed doing was helping out with after-school tutoring. Granted part of the appeal was that I was stuck there until the bus came at 4pm, and the other part of the appeal was that I had a lot of experience working one-on-one with kids, but what made it most enjoyable in the end is that it really helped me build relationships with my students in a non-classroom context. Sometimes I secretly suspect they were more likely to come if they knew I was going to be there to help them with their homework. The real paydirt was that they became more cooperative in class because they knew me better (and knew that I was a reasonable person who was willing to work with them). Maybe the other part of it, is that I gained a lot of additional understanding about them as individuals and had more ammo to use when we were back in the classroom.

Get organized-NOW. Organization was never my strong point, but I learned a whole lot about this from watching my Cooperating Teacher (and others) to see what they did to stay on top of her game. Some of the best systems I ever saw in my life were in SPED classrooms--where it's really critical to be organized because there's a lot of paperwork, schedules, materials, and routines that have to be accessible and ready to go every single day. Color code everything. Watch and learn. You will quickly drown in papers if you don't have a system, and feel absolutely crazy if your teaching materials can't be found at a moment's notice.

Know your boundaries. Yours may differ from your Cooperating Teachers, but there has to be some coherence overall, so since it's not YOUR classroom, you might have to try to use a system that doesn't exactly work for you (but one that the kids are already used to). Keep in mind that it's temporary. What's important is to be fair (which by the way doesn't mean treat the students exactly alike). Respect your students, and manage your classroom in an even-handed manner. Now if you find yourself in a situation where there doesn't seem to be any rules, you'll have to step up and establish some order. Establish where you stand and stick to it. Ignore the whining and complaining you might get--it'll pass. Just tell 'em "that's how I roll" and move on.

One thing you can never do to early or often is be clear. Tell your students exactly what you expect of them, every single day if need be. You may be amazed that kids have to be told over and over again how to take notes, how to behave during activities, and what to do when there's a quiz--even high school kids need a dose of the obvious. One thing I've discovered about middle schooler is that you have to go over your expectations every single day. In fact, whenever a lesson is sabotaged by obnoxious student behavior, you can be sure that somebody forgot to go over the expectations.

Be prepared for anything: technology meltdowns, last minute schedule changes, uncooperative kids, fire drills, interruptions, you name it. There's no limit to the number of distractions lurking out there waiting to take down the well-planned lesson. The only thing you can do really is be mentally ready to go with the flow. Be especially prepared anytime you know you're going to be observed.

Differentiation should always be on your radar when you're planning a unit. Variety is the spice of life, and you should plan accordingly. There's no end to the demographic variations you might encounter in a classroom. Assuming you somehow have a room full of native English speakers (difficult for me to imagine, but I hear it happens!), you still should anticipate some "special kids" who will need extra time and attention from you. Consult with your cooperating teacher, other colleagues, paraeducators and special educators, and specialists to learn about special needs students in your classroom and plan how you will meet their needs.

Find a shoulder to cry on. Student teaching is tough and some days, you may feel like you've taken a beating. Your self-confidence will be shaken as often as it is lifted. If you don't have a friend or colleague who's a "buddy," find one quick. Your current family, friends, significant others just won't get it--unless they happen to be teachers as well.

In spite of the difficulties, try to stay positive! One of the nice things about teaching is that every day is different. If today was bad, tomorrow will probably be a lot better. If nothing else, enjoy your students and their learning. Never miss an opportunity to give a kid some encouragement, even the toughest cases respond to this if you stick with them. Never fail to find opportunities to praise your students and write positive notes on their work. They get more out of this than you might suspect. Be proud of yourself, and take pride in your accomplishments and those of your students. Someone somewhere told me once that they love their students as much as a parent might, just in a totally different way. Go with that feeling.

Now that I’m in the homestretch, I’m starting to feel like I’m getting the hang of this. I feel on top of my game most days, can whip up a plan at a moment’s notice, and usually know how I want to handle what come my way.

My last piece of advice is relax! Remember that you are only one person, and you are doing the best you can, where you’re at, with what you have. And always, keep a sense of humor! You never know what the universe (or the students) are going to throw your way on a given day.