Tips for Student Teachers

Are you so excited to be FINALLY student teaching?! It seriously is on of the most important first steps in your career of becoming future teacher!  I want to share tips with you on how to have a successful experience student teaching! 

Be a sponge.  It is exciting when you first enter a classroom and you might want to hit the ground running, but be considerate of that fact that you are entering someone else’s classroom, so make sure you are respectful that they are your mentor and you are the student.  Even if you don’t agree with their teaching philosophy or management style, remember how you handle that and present your self is important because this is an interview. 

Say YES to everything! Go to staff meetings, extra planning days, parent-teacher conferences, assemblies, each lunch with the staff, DO ALL THE THINGS!  This is a great way to show that you are a team player and to get the most out of your experience.

Stay as organized as you can! In my video below I give examples of how to stay organized, but if possible plan when and what subject you will takeover first.

Communicate with your Master Teacher! If you are struggling let them know, and ask for help!  Ask as many questions as you can! It is difficult starting fresh in a new class/school, so it might seem like learning a foreign language.  This is ok, but don’t suffer silently.  Tell your Master teacher how you are feeling and let them know how they can support you.

Follow the classroom management plan that is already in place.  It might be difficult to find your spot on the classroom as far as authority and discipline goes, and that is totally normal.  My advice would be focus on knowing the students, building relationships with them, so they know you care about them.  This way when you need to redirect their behavior they will trust you and *hopefully* obey.  I would continue the classroom management plan your Master Teacher is already using, and then sprinkle in some positive reinforcement/reward system once you have been in the class for a couple of weeks.  Ask your Master Teacher what the behavior expectations are and how the consequences work for different defiant behaviors.

For the rest of my tips… I have a YouTube video waiting for you sharing all my advice that I would give to any student teacher!  Click the video below to watch it!