How to Get More Out of Your Student Teaching Experience

Student teaching is an exhilarating yet stressful culminating experience that all teachers somehow survive, but there are ways to get more out of student teaching. Student teaching isn't simply about practicing your lesson plans before a "live audience". It's about seeing what a teacher's job is really like and taking the time to really study and learn from expert teachers in action. After years of learning educational theory, this is a student teacher's one chance to learn the practical aspects of being a successful teacher, which may, in the end, be more important to becoming a successful educator than expertise in a given field.

Observe more than the dictated number of hours, far more if possible. Every student teacher spends time observing other teachers as part of their practicum, but to really get the most out of the experience, observe as many teachers as you can. Ask your mentor teacher which teachers are considered outstanding by colleagues and make sure to spend time in each of those classrooms. Teachers develop their bag of tricks over the years that help with everything from discipline to dealing with parents to staying organized. Keep notes of all of the tricks and procedures you observe for future reference. Not all will work for you, but they will provide you food for thought as you come up with the procedures for your own classroom.

Take special note of disciplinary procedures and methods that teachers use to gain student cooperation. If there is one aspect of teaching that confounds most first-year teachers, it is the area of discipline. A teacher might have wonderful lesson plans and tons of creative ideas only to have them fail in the classroom due to poor classroom management. Student teachers tend to focus on the actual teaching rather than what allows that teaching to take place effectively. A student teacher might even approach school administrators and ask to shadow an assistant principal for a day to get a behind-the-scenes look at disciplinary issues and how they are handled.

Attend PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and other school functions during your student teaching experience. Parents can have a big impact on a teacher's career. Knowing how to deal with different types of parents, from the helicopter parents to the uninvolved parents, will be a great help during the first years of teaching. Particularly at the elementary level, the PTA and its volunteers can be a tremendous source of help to teachers. Excellent veteran teachers will tell you that maintaining a positive relationship with the PTA and with classroom parents can make teaching easier and less overwhelming. Parents organize parties, make copies, assemble classroom materials, decorate bulletin boards, provide materials, and so much more. Learn how to harness that parent power. Learn how your mentor teacher communicates with parents and save sample correspondence, website addresses, take-home folders and other materials for future reference.

Keep an open mind. Student teachers often learn more than necessary about the mentor teacher's views of their class and of particular students. The wise student teacher will keep this information in mind while also realizing that teaching is about bonding with your students. We all bond with people differently and a "problem" student may respond more positively to a fresh face if given the chance. Too often, teachers down the line have already heard about their students from previous teachers so it can be difficult for a struggling or problematic student to ever get a second chance to start off the year with a clean slate. As an "outsider", the student teacher can provide that opportunity to all students and forge their own relationships, hopefully maintaining this openminded approach in their own classrooms.

Tour the school and use the resources available. It is easy for a student teacher to be trapped in the mentor teacher's classroom or section of the building and never become familiar with the rest of the school building or other grade levels or disciplines. Use the copy room, check out the supply closets, use the computer lab, and visit other grade levels or departments. This will give you a clear picture of what a teacher has to work with on a daily basis, how much teachers have to supplement classroom materials out of their pockets, and what technology is available for classroom use. Too often, new teachers are unaware that teaching requires spending a lot of your own money to provide those extras that the schools can't afford. The technology might not be what you are accustomed to or it might be far more filtered than you might have imagined. Getting to know other departments might also allow you to see how interdisciplinary, cross-curricular learning might take place.

Student teaching is the last step to becoming a full-fledged teacher. The first year of teaching causes too many to reconsider their career choice, simply because all the theory in the world does not sufficiently prepare someone to teach and manage a classroom of students effectively. By doing more observing of both veteran teachers and the school environment, a student teacher will start that first year with a useful "bag of tricks" and their eyes wide open to the reality of teaching. It is a wonderful, inspiring, and deeply satisfying profession if you get started on the right foot.