5 Tips to Be Successful at Student Teaching
Student teaching is a lot of hard work! I was so nervous going into it because I didn’t really know what to expect. How am I going to make relationships with the students? How am I going to stay organized? Do I need a student teaching binder? How much do I plan and teach? There are so many questions you ask yourself to say the least. However stressful it is, it really does give you the skills and confidence to one day have your own classroom! I want to share with you my top 5 tips to be a success at student teaching.
Go into student teachings with with my best student teaching tips.
1. Be a Confident Student Teacher
Go right in saying “I’ve got this!” even though you may be a little nervous. In student teaching, be assertive! What helped me was talking to my mentor teacher I was working with before hand. I went into her classroom to talk to her and see how her classroom was set up. I got her number and email. I asked her to send me a list of classroom rules and procedures which I kept in my student teaching binder. That way when I went into the classroom the first day, I could be an authority figure because I already knew that was expected of the students. Again, be assertive! Not timid. The first few days you will probably be observing quite a bit. But if the students are doing independent work walk around and help students. This will help build good relationships with students and also your mentor teacher! She will see that you are confident going in without being told what to do.
A student teaching binder can just be the thing that helps you keep track of everything while student teaching.
2. Be an Organized Student Teacher
There is so much that goes into teaching. Keeping track of 20 or so kids, different schedules, meetings, specials, lessons, and so much more! To help me keep everything straight, I had a student teaching binder for organization. There I kept a list of students, weekly lesson plans, student interests, daily schedule, monthly calendars, to-do lists, and more. Then it was easy to group students when I had a list of their names. It was easy to see what days I would be staying later because of meetings. It was easy to see what lessons I was teaching and needed to plan for. To keep it simple, it made my student teacher life much easier! I would highly recommend getting a student teaching binder. I also kept lesson plans, my formal evaluations sheets, and resources I made for lessons. This made an easy transition to when I was job searching. I kept those things to share in interviews. Here is the student teaching binder that I used while student teaching. It is completely editable so it will work for anyone’s student teaching experience.
Building relationships is always key in a classroom, and especially while student teaching.
3. Build Relationships with Students.
On day one of student teaching, start getting to know students and help them get to know you.
I did a simple bag activity. I filled a bag with things that help describe me. My favorite book, color, candy, animal… You better believe that my students knew that I love the color pink and I love cats by the time I left from student teaching. As I introduced myself to my students, I called up one student at a time to pull something out of my bag. Then I gave students a paper with an outline of a bag. They got to draw items that explained to me what their interests and likes are. I was amazed how many bunnies and tractors got drawn onto bags! Haha. I recorded students’ interests in my student teaching binder to stay organized. Then it was easy to look at and talk to students about their interests and even incorporate them into lessons! This bag activity works for any grade. I have done it with 1st graders and 6th graders! When you get finished with your student teaching, don’t forget to thank students and write them a note. They will remember you for a long, long time! I have thank you notes you can write to your students and mentor teacher here.
Student teaching goes much smoother if your students know your expectations.
4. Set High Expectations
Don’t be fresh bait to students! Since you are new they will try to push their limits with you. They are trying to test what they can get away with and what they cannot! Show them what you expect and then follow through. Visuals are always good. I listed what my expectations look like, sound like, and feel like. Then students would have no doubt in what I meant by each expectation. I made cards with each expectation, put magnetic tape on the backs, and then went over them with the students. I then could display them on the whiteboard and readdress them when needed. We practiced not talking when the teacher was talking, raising our hands, and other expectations. Then when I saw students following those expectations I could give them positive consequences, and if not so, a negative consequence. Find the editable expectation cards I made here.
Trying your own ideas is the most fun part of student teaching.
5. Try Your Own Ideas
Yes, I know you are in someone else’s classroom where they already have everything established. Get to know your mentor teacher’s teaching style, classroom procedures, and management. But the fact is, you are different than your mentor teacher. You may need different procedures and management tools than them! And that’s okay. I tried a few new things. I also ran it by my mentor teacher first by saying… “Hey, I was thinking about trying this in the classroom. How do you feel about that? Do you think it’s a good idea?” And every time my mentor teacher told me to go for it! In the classroom, I needed a classroom management tool that would keep individual students accountable. It was a game changer for me! And guess what… My mentor teacher put that in my recommendation letter! Another time I tried my own idea in student teaching was when I decided to make up my own math quiz and give it to the kids. Then on that following Friday, I put the students in groups to practice the concepts they needed more help on according to the quiz scores. Was this different than my mentor teacher’s normal routine? Yes! But did it impress her? Yes! This also ended up in my recommendation letter.
So student teacher, go rock it in the classroom. Just do your best! Some days are better than others and that’s just normal for teaching and student teaching. I hope you found these 5 Tips to be Successful in Student Teaching helpful. Keep organized and have a positive attitude and you will do just fine. Don’t be afraid to check out my editable student teaching binder. It helped me stay organized so well.
Need help with classroom management while student teaching? Check out my blog post all about different classroom management techniques that I have seen work for me. Find that post here.
