Survey: What are the specific burdens of Student Teachers during their practice teaching (in a teaching course

I did my student teaching in a school fairly far from my college.

The burdens?

Fear of not passing

Fear that I would not have control of the kids

Fear that my lesson plans were not detailed enough

Fear that my comments after the lesson did not show the “real” results of my 45 minute class

Distress about not making friends in the Teacher’s Lounge (feeling inferiour, which of course I WAS!)

Having my car break down in the snow and walking to the school in the very cold.

Too many social events at the college that I could not attend (too busy making lesson plans)

I passed of course and THEN I learned how to teach, watching a Sunday School “Master Teacher” (of 15 yrs experience) who had the whole SS kids in the palm of her hand. SHE taught me how to be a teacher!! The college experience was valuable in some ways, but Mrs Hatcher really did the job.

monthsWell as much as the students teaching experience was some what valuable for me there are a few downfalls. The first being the financial burden-as we don’t get paid for 3-4 and we’re doing all the work. The second reason is being placed with a teacher whose unwilling to let her classroom go and allow you to practice teaching and managing a class. Hope that helps.

I have been on both sides of the fence.

Student teachers have it rough when they go into a classroom where a specific curriculum must be followed when she or the professor does not agree with its methods. Still, the student teacher needs to know about this curriculum if she is expecting to get a position in that district. ST’s cannot have free reign to do as they wish in a classroom anymore because of NCLB requirements (neither can the classroom teacher!).

Cooperating teachers do not like to give up total control of their classroom because THEY are responsible for the students test scores and annual progress. It is much easier to give up this control to a TS who understands the necessity of following the required curriculum and who ask for input and help when writing lesson plans and who is willing to learn about the curriculum requirements.

The best student teachers I have had were ones that didn’t think they knew everything when they walked into my room and were eager to learn how a “real world” classroom works as opposed to the “ideal” classroom taught in the university programs. I work with my STs to be sure that their lesson plans meet the standards that are needed to ensure that my students will be able to pass the required tests and meet the annual progress requirements. This means that he/she cannot make “cute” lesson plans if they are not in the sequence of learning. (I had one ST that wanted to do a whole unit on “I am special” during March–she was not happy when I vetoed that idea– she had the whole unit planned from a previous university class and didn’t want to “waste” it) because my class had done that unit in September. STs are in the classroom to learn what they will be required to do as classroom teachers, this cannot be taught in a university course.

I agree with the other person who said financial burdens was a big part! Other things was having to be on the top of your top game (a lot of eyes looking for your mistakes as well as good qualities). Another thing is that even if you have a good supervising teacher, you still are not in your own space. You cannot go in and change things so that you can work better.

A burden I remember from years ago was trying to find the balance between what my University expected as good teaching practices and what the cooperating teacher did.

He was not a good teacher, and I knew it, but I couldn’t “show him up” and undermine him with students yet neither could I follow his methods and pass my course with the marks I expected of myself from my advisor. He wasn’t a bad teacher, just not good.

The teacher used teaching methods that were not part of my classes. She was very authoritative and mean. I did not learn proper classroom management.

General Research Guides for Students:

Easy to use links that will help with all your research needs, try typing a keyword or two into the search engine and see what happens.

http://findarticles.com/

http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp

http://www.yagosearch.com/

http://www.dogpile.com/

http://www.studentresearcher.com/search/

http://www.chacha.com/

http://www.reference.com/

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/8866/index.html

http://www.aresearchguide.com/