Student Teaching Advice

Hi everyone!! With the new semester starting soon, and student teachers beginning to plan for their placements, I wanted to share some of my experience. I know how confusing and overwhelming it is, and when I started I wanted to read posts like this! So hopefully this is helpful for at least one person lol.

I'm in PA, and just graduated in December with a BS in Secondary Education Social Studies. I student taught psychology and sociology from the end of August to the middle of December. Now, I am a building sub at the school I student taught at.

My cooperating teacher: Thankfully, he was amazing! I reached out a few weeks beforehand to introduce myself, share that I was nervous, and ask some clarifying questions. He had lessons built that I was free to use or build off of, and was always there to answer any questions. When I was sick or running late, I texted him and he was very understanding.

What questions I asked: When I first reached out, I asked where to park and what door to come in through. I also asked for the bell schedule, and what his schedule looked like. On my first day, he met me in the office and showed me how I would sign in each day. I was able to get a badge to get me into the building without buzzing the office every morning. I remember having an overwhelming feeling of "what do I even teach?!" So for example, say I was teaching about deviance in sociology. I'd ask what he would recommend I go into next, or if I should hit any other specific topics while still focused on deviance.

Beginning teaching: So my cooperating teacher taught 2 psych classes, 1 soc class, 1 AP psych class (which I did not touch,) and 2 econ/life skills classes (I also didn't touch those because he just started this class last year, and he didn't even really know what content he wanted to teach there haha.) So again, I got lucky with teaching only 3 classes, rather than 5 or 6. My first 2 weeks were spent just observing. Watching his teaching styles and how he structures a class, student behavior and how he addresses unwanted behavior, how he differentiates for kids with IEPs, 504s, and ELLs. I also introduced myself to the students. Got to know them a little bit. While observing, I spent a lot of time refreshing myself on psych and soc topics, specifically the topics I was going to be teaching. Then, I completely took over the soc class. I only taught that class for about 2-3 weeks, so I could get comfortable at the front of the room, and develop a routine. Then, I took over both psych classes (and i was fine! By then, I felt prepared.)

How I planned: I like to think of myself as a pretty organized person, but student teaching really enhanced that skill. I had a big monthly planner/agenda that I used to kind of brainstorm what topics I wanted to teach and when. Then, when I had a more solid idea of what I was going to do, I wrote that plan on a big desk calendar. My cooperating teacher had a lot of his psych class already built, so I was able to look at his old powerpoints, activities, and assessments. He personally didn't do tests (his classes are considered electives rather than core classes, so it was a bit more lenient) so I assessed with lots of projects, bell ringers, and exit slips. They had a bell ringer and exit slip almost every day. My cooperating teacher was really good at checking in, almost every day he would ask "what do you have planned for tomorrow?" A lot of the time, I didn't have a concrete plan, and that's okay! I would say something like "I have some of a powerpoint built," or "I found this video I really like," or simply just "I want to talk about the sleep cycles but don't know how to go about it." He would often give me suggestions, like "maybe have them do a small group activity" or "maybe find an article and have them identify certain things."

Standards: So my district was big on standards, in the form of "I can..." statements. Every day I would write at least 2 "I can..." statements on the board. So for example, "I can...hypothesize what makes a social movement successful" or "I can...identify specific parts of the brain." Other than that, I only used standards for the lesson plans I had to submit for my college class. (I used the American Psychological Association's education standards for psych and soc, in case anyone here will be teaching those subjects.)

Sick days/days needed off: We're human, we get sick, we need personal days, don't feel bad about it. If I was sick or running late, I texted my cooperating teacher. Honestly, I was supposed to let my professor know as well, but I didn't. Like I said, I got lucky with my cooperating teacher so I knew he wouldn't snitch on me lol. Personally, I had maybe 7 sick/personal days. Some colleges have a limit or make you make up missed days at the end of your student teaching, but again, cool teacher...he knew that I worked hard and agreed that a limit or make-up policy was stupid lol.

PRAXIS/What even is a teaching certificate: So I'm still in the process of this. In PA, you're able to graduate with your degree without being certified. What does that mean? I didn't need to take the PRAXIS in order to graduate. But I DO need to take it in order to actually teach in my own classroom. Sure, it might be easier or make more sense to take the PRAXIS while still in college, that way when you graduate you'll be completely certified. (Your certification is your degree + your passing PRAXIS score.) So, I took the social studies PRAXIS at the end of December. I'm assuming I failed, so I've been studying and am going to re-take at the end of January/beginning of February. It takes 2-3 weeks to get your PRAXIS results back.

Dress code: I personally wore doc martins every day - they're my comfiest shoe, and they can be dressed up or down. Fridays were jean days. I rotated between long dresses with a sweater over or tshirt under, dress pants and basic tshirt with a cardigan, or even dress pants and a graphic tshirt with a cardigan. Look at what other teachers are wearing. I didn't want to feel under or over-dressed.

That's all I can think of right now! If anyone has ANY questions, ask away! Even if they seem stupid...I remember feeling like "I don't even know what I don't know," if that makes sense haha.

Good luck everyone!!! You're going to do so great and learn so much. And I promise, the time flies by.