You’re Hosting a Student Teacher, Now What?!?
So your administration sent an email and they asked if anyone was interested in hosting a student teacher and your response was “Sure, why not!” Hosting a student teacher had been on my teacher bucket list after about 5 years of teaching. I wanted to help set another person up to hopefully learn to love being an educator like I do. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not unicorns and rainbows. I’ve had years where I felt nothing but exhaustion, negativity, and constantly being overwhelmed. But my overall goal was to share as many parts of education that I could with a student teacher so they didn’t have this naive expectation going in.
I’m going to share 5 things that helped my student teacher and I learn and grow.
- Schedule time to meet before they start in your classroom
- Create a list of things you want them to focus on during their beginning observations
- Create expectations for daily lesson plans
- Discuss classroom and behavior management
- Validate them with their skills
1. Once I found out who my student teacher was, I reached out. Now, I know this isn’t always the case…but if this is possible, I highly recommend doing so. Thankfully, my student teacher lived in the area and we were able to meet up at a coffee shop to talk the cliff notes of my classroom/district. If distance is an issue, do a google meet. Meeting your student teacher for the first time on their first day in your room is not ideal.
I asked her to come to our meeting with any questions she could think of so we could have plenty of time to chat. Baby teachers don’t know, what they don’t know…we’ve all been there. I wouldn’t expect them to have a ton but it will show you a preview of their confidence and knowledge. I had my list of important things to discuss: classroom management, curriculum info/scope & sequence, lesson planning, and grade level expectations. Keep it simple; I made the mistake of getting all excited and sharing too much. Oooops! Her face was pretty priceless 😂 and I had to quick check myself to not overwhelm her.
2. I had to pull myself back 15 years to think…..”What would help me if I was observing those first weeks?” I’m pretty sure I literally sat in the corner watching my cooperating teacher thinking “Wow, she’s good” and then “Crap, I’m not sure I can do this!” I didn’t want that for my student teacher….and to be honest it’s kind of boring watching someone else teach all day. I went on Canva (my newest obsession) and used a template to create a simple outline. My hope was that it would help her direct her thoughts or have an idea of what to look for. Baby teachers don’t know, what they don’t know. I’m sure there are way more creative/purposeful outlines out there or even one you could create but this was mine.
3. I was super excited to share all the things with my student teacher. I felt that lesson planning was something that came easy to me. After 15 years, I have gotten to the point where I have a paper planner and write a basic outline of the lesson in each box. They are by no means super detailed like my first few years teaching but I didn’t think anything of it. I earned this perk of being a veteran teacher, right?!?
Welp….that’s where I went wrong. As much as I hated writing those detailed lessons in the early years I realized it was because things didn’t come naturally like they do now. I had to write out the directions like I would say them to students or remember what page in the manual to refer back to. What I modeled in that first month of having a student teacher wasn’t what I wanted to see her do. She did just as I did, wrote down basic outlines of the lesson. No fault of her own, it’s what I was modeling. After a couple observations, I realized I needed her to do as I recommended and not what I did. Seems silly, but at that point I hadn’t been a good example for her. So my new motto was “do as I say, not as I do!” 😵💫
So we sat down and discussed how to take time to write lesson plans that benefit you as a teacher and stay focused on standards and goals for students. She needed this especially for subjects where there may not be a curriculum manual to guide you. She realized that good lesson planning can lead to positive classroom management. Always staying one step ahead of the students and what might go wrong in a lesson. Again, baby teachers don’t know, what they don’t know. And apparently veteran teachers forget the important things too. 🙃
4. Well….the hardest part of being a cooperating teacher is giving up control. Why does this connect to behavior management? Well…keep reading and I’ll hopefully try to explain. Each year you get a new group of kiddos (unless you’re like me and loop with your kids 😊). You spend those first few months getting to know them, setting routine, developing expectations and creating respectful connections.
Then you say yes to a student teacher. You know they’re coming and you’re excited but then you observe their lessons and notice “oh….dear.” Not, oh dear for the student teacher (hopefully that’s not the case) but that the students act differently. It’s turned into a “parents are gone, the babysitter is here” type of situation. Sneaky choices, more talking, less structure. A lot of our conversations about her lessons revolved around classroom management that first month. This is honestly one thing I feel that college cannot and doesn’t give you a true experience before you’re thrown into the gauntlet. Sure, other things connect to classroom management and we eventually got to that point but the first month was going over how to build those relationships with kids.
Some teachers think that respect is given straight away and that’s just not my style. I think that kids will model your choices and behavior and give you respect when you are respectful to them. Now, there are years that are hard and my style didn’t work. I had to adjust and learn how to have a soft heart and tough skin. But I wanted to show her that ultimately, kids will model what they see. Flying off the handle, yelling about everything isn’t going to get you anywhere. Staying calm in the most tense situation is what they will see and then hopefully model with time. I know you’re laughing right now thinking “this lady is delusional”….I get it. Everyone is different and you have to find your way.
Her teaching style and behavior management was different from mine. Did she keep some things the same? Yes. Did I have to give up control and let her figure things out? Yes. Was it easy to watch? No. I think there were some days I wanted to rip my skin off because I knew a better way or that the students knew better. Did we have hard conversations about things? Yes. But I always kept my goal in the front of my mind. I wanted to help a new teacher learn to love education and know the good, the bad, and the ugly. 💜
5. This part was the most important. Everyone wants to be validated. We want to know and feel like we are doing a good job. I spent a lot of years in buildings where I didn’t feel that way. Thankfully, I now work in an amazing building where validation is given. Even if you are in a building where you don’t get the credit you deserve…..still make sure to give it to your student teacher. Set them on the path for success. You’re going to be the kick start of their career. Imagine if you set them up with most of the tools they need to get started. That’s validation for you and how knowledgeable you are.
Even after observing a student teacher’s lesson where it completely went off the rails, find a moment of positivity. My student teacher shared with me when we were almost done, that I was willing to have hard conversations with her about her lessons because I wanted her to be her best. Accountability is validation. Was I a complete witch and told her the lesson was terrible? Of course not. We picked out the parts that went well and then also picked apart the parts that definitely didn’t.
Towards the end when she was solo, I told her I had to step away and let her figure things out on her own. If she asked questions, awesome. But I was going to let her learn by experience. I still gave her advice when she asked but tried to respond with open ended questions to get her to think. Our days usually ended with two questions, “What went well?” and “What is something you will change to make it better for tomorrow?” Some days she wanted to find more patience and I validated that. Each day brings something new, it’s what keeps us on our toes.
HOW EXCITING that you are hosting a student teacher! I hope these 5 things will help steer you in the right direction or were of any help. I hope you have the BEST experience! And props to you for taken on this new adventure/experience….you’re a rock star! ⭐