When I walked through the main entrance of
Cityville High School
before student teaching, I was a little scared. It was daunting walking
into the building as a teacher, but through increased contact with the
students and teachers, I soon converted my apprehension into
enthusiasm. My relationship with my students created a successful and
meaningful environment. This was due to two main ingredients: A good
relationship with my cooperating teacher and time management.
As a student teacher, I really wanted to have a
beneficial
relationship with my cooperating teacher. I started by visiting the
classroom a few times one month before my actual student teaching
semester began. I was fortunate that the school was close to where I
had been living while in college, so I could do this. This gave me the
opportunity to see what technology the school offered and how my
cooperating teacher utilized technology. My cooperating teacher and I
exchanged teaching philosophies and some ideas right away and I was
able to start thinking about the upcoming semester. I offered my
suggestions and potential lesson plans and learned from her plans. Most
importantly, I asked questions any time I had them. My cooperating
teacher and I developed a working relationship before the semester
started and this helped make my student teaching experience more
rewarding. Since we established this relationship early, I felt
comfortable enough to teach after only one week of observation, which
was nice. This gave me the opportunity to cover two units while I was
teaching instead of just one.
My cooperating teacher gave me room to create my
own lessons,
although topics we were covering were already set. Since she was a more
of a lecture-based teacher, I was glad for the freedom she gave me to
do a few small group activities, role-plays, and computer-based
projects. I think she would have felt more comfortable if my method had
offered more lectures. My cooperating teacher also felt it was
important for me to see a variety of other teaching styles in the
school, so I visited other English classrooms periodically to see what
other teachers were doing as well.
During my student teaching experience, I quickly
learned that time
management was essential to ensure a successful unit. Though I had
pre-planned a unit, it was not enough! I was not prepared for the
adaptations I had to make along the way. I spent weekends and
weeknights editing my plans. I also was a little ambitious with an exam
I administered. I spent hours crafting an elaborate midterm exam, only
to have several students not be able to finish it – it also took
me days to grade them all. As a novice, I did not realize know much
material I would need to have prepared for each class. My cooperating
teacher said that as you become more experience you develop these
skills and a repertoire of materials and activities to account for any
situation. Since my teacher was the Academic Team sponsor, she invited
me to co-sponsor the team that semester. This was another
time-management lesson for me! I knew that many teacher sponsor
extra-curricular activities, but actively sponsoring one myself taught
me the time commitment involved as well. We held practice twice a week
after school and took the team to three Saturday contests over the
course of the semester.
Overall, I had a good experience. I learned a lot
from my
cooperating teacher and from my students. My cooperating teacher gave
me the freedom to try things and work on my own, but was also
supportive and was there for me when I needed advice or ideas. Now I
feel experienced and ready for my own class.
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