Getting the most out of your student teaching experience.

I was walking my students down the hall towards their art class, when I spotted her. I didn't know her personally, but from that first glimpse I knew exactly who she was and what was going through her mind. This young woman was nervous, excited, confident, and full of self-doubt. She was a pre-service teacher heading toward her student teaching assignment. And with that short glance it all started rushing back to me, the memories of a young man experiencing the same thoughts and emotions only a couple of years ago.

In many ways, I was extremely lucky. For my semester of student teaching, I had great advisers at college, an excellent principal, a wise and kind teacher, and a class of 25 children who cut me a sizable break. Student teaching was where I truly started learning about my chosen profession. It was stressful, exciting, perplexing, and frustrating all at the same time. Thinking back, I had so many questions: When was I going to start teaching? What does my host teacher expect out of a student teacher? What type of school was I going to? Would the kids accept, tolerate, obey, and most important, learn from me?

Last week, in the teacher's lounge, I talked to several veteran teachers about what they looked for from a student teacher and how preservice teachers can maximize their classroom experience. We all laughed at our own stories of wanting to succeed so badly and succeeding in being bad. But from these conversations and my own experience, we came up with a few suggestions to help the preservice teacher get as much out of the student teaching assignment as possible.

One of the most important things a preservice teacher can do is to make a good first impression, not just with your principal and teacher, but also with your class. A lot of eyes are watching you. How you approach your assignment early on will affect how much others will trust you.

Don't assume the world revolves around you. Make sure that you call your cooperating teacher towards the end of the semester before you begin. This is a good way of introducing yourself to your teacher and finding out a bit about what he or she expects from student teachers. But do not worry if teachers do not get back to you right away when you call because they might have much more to worry about than you. The class may be in the middle of testing or they might be finishing up with another student teacher. Check at appropriate intervals, but not too often. If you keep calling, you could come across as pushy.

Come in early and help the teacher set up. The hardest thing for me to do during my semester of student teaching was moving from "College Time" to "Real World Time." But I made sure I got up early enough to get to school about the same hour as my supervising teacher. The time gave us a chance to talk about what was coming up that day and to discuss different classroom situations, and it gave me an opportunity to see how she organized. I learned how much work preparation was and how it paid off after the chaos of the day began. Also, pitch in and help! The papers don't get graded by themselves; by helping without asking, you will increase the trust your supervising teacher will have in you. It is also beneficial for preservice teachers to see how the year is started. Initial class set-up is critical to having a good year.

Cooperative teachers also love when a student teacher takes responsibility without taking control. Too many student teachers come in thinking that they can teach everything right away. It was amazing to me how much I didn't know right away. The most important thing for you to do at the beginning of the year is to see how the class is set up, learn the classroom procedures, and watch the discipline expectations. Be ready to step in when the opportunity presents itself, but remember that they placed you in this teacher's classroom for a reason. Watch and learn. How does the teacher keep the class moving? How is discipline maintained? How does the teacher manage the various types of children in the classroom?

Be friendly, but firm. You are not there to play "Good Cop, Bad Cop." The temptation is to become the children's buddy, a sympathetic ear if the children get rebuffed by their "mean, old" teacher. But in a couple of days, you are going to be in front of that group and the behaviors and relationship that you form early will be the basis of maintaining control of the room. From personal experience, I found it is far easier to become nice then it is to become strict.

And one last piece of advice that my lounge full of teachers had was to relax and enjoy the experience. For every story told, there was a smile on the face of the storyteller. It may seem daunting and scary at the time, but now we all looked back on our classroom assignments with fondness and amazement that we were ever so naive. I hope in a couple of years, the young lady I saw in the hall the other day will be remembering her student teaching with as much affection as I do now.

--Andrew Peralta, Student Representative