Tips for student teaching

Student teaching is an experience that I would never forget. There are many ups and downs but it turned out very well at the end. Some tips and advice for future students is to:

• Plan, Plan, and Plan
• Prepare all lessons with enough time in advance
• Always have a back up plan with lessons
• Take constructive criticism and use that to better yourself as a teacher and your lessons
• Try not to work if you do not have to
• Do not be intimidated and don't let the anxiety and stress get you down
• Look at everyday day as an adventure
• Look at the students as if they were truly your own
• The students will look up to you and respect you if you respect them.
• Student teaching is very stressful but that will eventually diminish the longer you are teaching.
• The anxiety will go away.
• Take the time to learn your students and who they truly are
• Listen to the advice from the outcome of your observations
• Create activities and lessons that relate to the students interests
• DO NOT GIVE UP!
• It seems like it will last forever, but it goes by very fast

ALMOST DONE

The semester is almost over. The part of this week that was the most beneficial is that the semester is almost over. It has been a very long semester with planning, lesson plans, clinical studies assignments, but we all managed to get through all the stress and work and make it to the end. I think for me the realization and relief that I have felt this week has been the most beneficial. I am so happy that I did not quit and give up when that is all that I really wanted to do in week three and four. Looking back now, it went by very fast and really was not as bad as it seemed at the time. This has passed to and now we are all ready to move on and become teachers and have our own classroom.
It has been very nice working with all of you this semester and all of us sticking together. There is not anything that I would change about this past week. I had all my lesson plans completed before the week started and I gave tests to all my classes this week. My students keep talking about how they will miss me when I am gone and that some are not looking forward to getting their teachers back. I think that the coops are ready to take their classes back. We only have THREE more days left everyone. Good luck and have fun.

Week 14

The most valuable aspect of this past week was completing the student surveys again. Reviewing the surveys and comparing them to the midterm really made me realize that I have improved and become a better teacher since the beginning. I think that the ratings that I received from the questions on my survey were a lot better this time than they were for the midterm. I even had a comment from one of my students that I improved a lot and that they think I am a good teacher. It made me feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.
I think for me it was hard to get motivated to go back to school on Wednesday after having five days off. The end is so near and I feel like I am starting to get like all the students with the senioritis.
If I could change anything about the past week I don't really know what it would be. The week was short with only three days and they all went very smooth in all my classes. So, there really would not be anything that I needed to change for this week.

Podcast

Week 13

The aspect of this past week that I found most valuable was I think that it is almost the end of our semester. I feel very comfortable with all my students now and I think that it shows in my instruction and lessons with them. I am actually the most comfortable with my accounting classes which is very funny and interesting to me. I hated accounting the most when I started and now I like that the most.
I think with the Easter break coming that the students were very lazy this week and anticipating having a few days off from school. The students seemed very anxious for the end of the week to approach. I had fun activities for the students on Thursday before the break because I knew that there would be a lot of students absent and that none of them would be motivated to complete any work.
I video taped my second lesson this week for the final. I did that on Monday and I felt that my lesson was great and that it turned out very well. Then on Tuesday morning, the tech person came to our room and told me that there was a problem. The tape was stuck in the camcorder and he could not close it or get the tape out. He needs to send the camcorder away to get fixed. He told me that it would take weeks to get the tape back if he was able to salvage the tape at all. So, then I re-recorded another lesson on Tuesday. I turned out well but I don't feel that it was as good as the first lesson that I recorded. So, if I could go back and change anything about this week it would be that, that would not have happened to the video. I know there was not anything that I could do after that happened but it still gets frustrating.

Week 12

The most valuable aspect of this past week I would have to say is going to the FBLA conference and getting a little break from the classroom. I felt that March was the longest month ever with not having any breaks. I learned a lot while at the conference. It made me realize how big the organization is and how important it is to the members. I never realized how many students were involved and that there were so many schools involved in the program. There were so many activities for the students to do and to compete in while at the conference. Being at the conference gave me some time to do some work for school also.
When I returned to school on Thursday, most students were happy to have us back. It was a little crazy getting back into things having five days off, but I did that easily. I have a ton of grading to complete now that I am back.
If I could change anything about this week I think it would be with my computer applications class. Lately they have done nothing but complain about anything and everything that is given to them. I just assigned them a project to create a web page. I gave them the option that they can create it on whatever they wish they just needed to get it approved first. Some students were excited but some just did nothing but complain. I am getting so sick of it. They would complain about doing the book work so I created different activities and they are still complaining. Some students were saying they would rather do the book work because it is easier. They would not have to apply and extra effort with the book work. It is so frustrating. I also feel like they are taking forever with the work that is assigned to them.

Week 11

The aspect of week eleven that I found most valuable was that it is week eleven I believe. I think now that we have been teaching now for eleven weeks that I am really starting to get into the grove of things. I am starting to really enjoy teaching and it shows in my lessons with my students. This week seemed to go by very slow for some reason though. I think that March was a very long month for all teachers with the PSSA's and everything. I finished my payroll project with my students this week in accounting and they really enjoyed the project. In my computer applications class on Friday, I taught a lesson on computer crimes. This allowed us to move away from the textbook and the book work that they have been working on for awhile now. They all seemed to really enjoy the topic and I feel that some of the students were very excited about the topic. I created a web page for them to access to go to the links that I provided to research about computer crimes and then they were required to make comments and use the different aspects they have learned in computer applications.
If I could go back and change one aspect of this week I think it would be trying to get some of the students motivated more. I think that it being almost April, all of the seniors are really starting to shut down. It seems like it has become so hard to interest the students and get them at all motivated in anything.