Give me your education mentoring hacks.
October 29, 2011 11:26 PM Subscribe
Hope me be the best master teacher/mentor to a student teacher.
Hi AskMe.
I have a student teacher for the first time, and since I never was one, I'm not quite sure if I'm "doing it right." I've asked my IRL friends/colleagues and I've talked extensively with her field supervisor, who have all been helpful. But I want to hear from mefites who have been a student/master teacher, or who have done a similar process of interning with a professional in the field, to know what was helpful, what wasn't, and what I can be doing/saying to make her the best teacher possible.
The details: I teach high school English at a GREAT school with good curriculum (that is comprehensive and focused) in the Bay Area, California. She watches me teach first period, and then teaches second. They aren't the same class, but we've phased in her participation in second so it has been more like team teaching. She takes over fully in a week.
The class she's teaching is tiny (22 kids) and they REALLY care about their grades and want to learn, and thus are fairly well behaved (I have not written any referrals, and have given out no F's this year in that class!). We're doing all the lesson planning together, although "we" is generous - I do 90%. We have strong routines and classroom community in place. Right now, she does the warm-up, the daily agenda/objective, and about 50% of the rest of class. It's been rough going. Lesson planning, classroom management, building relationships with students, pacing, checking for understanding, going with teachable moments, having discussions...everything in class right now is as painful as watching Mike Tyson in a spelling bee.
So: If you were a student teacher, what are the things your master teacher did for you or with you that helped you? What did you learn from (or in spite of) them? If you are a master teacher, what do you do that works? If you've been in an analogous situation (on either side), what advice do you have?
Hope me Metafilter.
Hi AskMe.
I have a student teacher for the first time, and since I never was one, I'm not quite sure if I'm "doing it right." I've asked my IRL friends/colleagues and I've talked extensively with her field supervisor, who have all been helpful. But I want to hear from mefites who have been a student/master teacher, or who have done a similar process of interning with a professional in the field, to know what was helpful, what wasn't, and what I can be doing/saying to make her the best teacher possible.
The details: I teach high school English at a GREAT school with good curriculum (that is comprehensive and focused) in the Bay Area, California. She watches me teach first period, and then teaches second. They aren't the same class, but we've phased in her participation in second so it has been more like team teaching. She takes over fully in a week.
The class she's teaching is tiny (22 kids) and they REALLY care about their grades and want to learn, and thus are fairly well behaved (I have not written any referrals, and have given out no F's this year in that class!). We're doing all the lesson planning together, although "we" is generous - I do 90%. We have strong routines and classroom community in place. Right now, she does the warm-up, the daily agenda/objective, and about 50% of the rest of class. It's been rough going. Lesson planning, classroom management, building relationships with students, pacing, checking for understanding, going with teachable moments, having discussions...everything in class right now is as painful as watching Mike Tyson in a spelling bee.
So: If you were a student teacher, what are the things your master teacher did for you or with you that helped you? What did you learn from (or in spite of) them? If you are a master teacher, what do you do that works? If you've been in an analogous situation (on either side), what advice do you have?
Hope me Metafilter.
*an Internet
*my mentor is a nice man
Sheesh. iPhone fail.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 11:49 PM on October 29, 2011
*my mentor is a nice man
Sheesh. iPhone fail.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 11:49 PM on October 29, 2011
I've always felt fortunate that I had such great student teaching experiences. To this day, I work to incorporate the things I learned into my own staff training sessions.
1. Be willing to share your space. Being a master teacher/mentor means that you need to be ready for things to go differently then you might have planned.
2. Don't be passive aggressive. If you have a concern, bring it up. Give clear, objective examples of why you feel something is not working. Then, give solid examples of how it can be improved.
3. Your student teacher will never teach as well as you do. This is okay. Part of being a student teacher is developing your own style -- figuring out what works and what doesn't. Your job is to provide guidance and encouragement.
4. Begin feedback sessions with phrases like, "How do you think that went?" or "What would you do differently if you taught this lesson again?" Constantly saying things like, "Here's what I would have done . . ." doesn't encourage introspection or growth.
5. Treat your student teacher like a professional, not a trainee. Your students will pick up on the difference. Part of having a meaningful student teaching experience is having a class that expects you to act like a teacher.
6. If you can, leave the classroom sometimes. Nothing breeds a sense of autonomy faster than the realization that suddenly you are all alone with a room full of students who expect you to teach them something.
7. Leave room for failure. During my junior year of college I had a student teaching experience in a middle school language arts classroom. I was full of innovative ideas that I was sure would be the best ever. The students were beginning a unit on Shakespeare, so I decided have them devote nearly three class periods to making paper mache masks. My teacher/mentor let me facilitate the project that I had planned. The students had a fantastic time, made a huge mess and made absolutely no correlation between the project and the lesson. At the end of the unit, my teacher/mentor gave me written feedback with the following questions: Did the project go like you planned? How could you have strengthened the connection between the activity and the lesson? Her questions allowed me the space to work toward the core problems with my plan. If she had led with, "Well, that didn't work," all I would have remembered was that she didn't like paper mache.
8. Be willing to laugh. Having master teachers with a good sense of humor taught me early on that teaching can and should be fun.
posted by WaspEnterprises at 12:21 AM on October 30, 2011 [4 favorites]
1. Be willing to share your space. Being a master teacher/mentor means that you need to be ready for things to go differently then you might have planned.
2. Don't be passive aggressive. If you have a concern, bring it up. Give clear, objective examples of why you feel something is not working. Then, give solid examples of how it can be improved.
3. Your student teacher will never teach as well as you do. This is okay. Part of being a student teacher is developing your own style -- figuring out what works and what doesn't. Your job is to provide guidance and encouragement.
4. Begin feedback sessions with phrases like, "How do you think that went?" or "What would you do differently if you taught this lesson again?" Constantly saying things like, "Here's what I would have done . . ." doesn't encourage introspection or growth.
5. Treat your student teacher like a professional, not a trainee. Your students will pick up on the difference. Part of having a meaningful student teaching experience is having a class that expects you to act like a teacher.
6. If you can, leave the classroom sometimes. Nothing breeds a sense of autonomy faster than the realization that suddenly you are all alone with a room full of students who expect you to teach them something.
7. Leave room for failure. During my junior year of college I had a student teaching experience in a middle school language arts classroom. I was full of innovative ideas that I was sure would be the best ever. The students were beginning a unit on Shakespeare, so I decided have them devote nearly three class periods to making paper mache masks. My teacher/mentor let me facilitate the project that I had planned. The students had a fantastic time, made a huge mess and made absolutely no correlation between the project and the lesson. At the end of the unit, my teacher/mentor gave me written feedback with the following questions: Did the project go like you planned? How could you have strengthened the connection between the activity and the lesson? Her questions allowed me the space to work toward the core problems with my plan. If she had led with, "Well, that didn't work," all I would have remembered was that she didn't like paper mache.
8. Be willing to laugh. Having master teachers with a good sense of humor taught me early on that teaching can and should be fun.
posted by WaspEnterprises at 12:21 AM on October 30, 2011 [4 favorites]
I start my practice teaching in two weeks (a little nervous, but generally ready!) and I want my supervising teacher to be upfront without being rude. Friendly suggestions, not dancing around the point, and pointing out things that I'm obviously oblivious to are all things I hope my supervising teacher can do for me.
posted by sarae at 6:39 AM on October 30, 2011
posted by sarae at 6:39 AM on October 30, 2011
I just finished my student teaching with an awesome first year mentor teacher in the spring. I was teaching Sophomore English classes most of the day with one hour of Jr/Sr Creative Writing elective. Here are my thoughts:
-Let your student teacher teach something that is 100% her own. I did a ton of original lessons in Creative Writing, some worked, some didn't, but they were MINE. In a similar vein...
-Give your student teacher as much of your material as you can. My Mentor gave me all of his course documents at the beginning of my student teaching. Literally, every hand out that he normally used for the whole semester. Lucky for me, they were all word docs, so I was able to change and edit them to fit my lessons. I used a lot of his stuff and just changed my name and made things a little more specific to my exact lesson plans. The students had no idea that I was stealing his stuff, I was sure to own everything I took from him as if I had created it from scratch.
-Let your student teacher work through things on her own. WaspEnterprises was absolutely correct in the need for independence. Sure it's terrifying to be the only teacher in the classroom as a student teacher, but until the student teacher is the only source of authority, by merely being in the room, you undermine her authority. And don't just sit in the hallway, go down to the teacher's lounge or the library or something, let them teach. I took over fully in creative writing after 2 weeks of just being a presence, and it was scary and exhilarating and fun.
She will have trouble, I had a few lessons that absolutely TANKED but I talked to my CT and he gave me some feedback and together we tweaked it and he observed the next class and it was fine. Not a great lesson, but not all of them are.
-ALWAYS reconvene at the end of the day and the beginning of the day. In between, too, if you can! I got to school about 30 minutes before class started and it gave us a great time to just talk about how things were going and what ideas I had. Then at the end of the day, we talked for another 20-30 minutes about how everything went. This happened almost every single day, and through this, I was able to catch a lot of potential problems before they developed. Some of this was just time to rant, but it was a great time to get stuff into the open so it didn't stew.
-If she's not already, get her involved in grading as soon as possible. The first few essays the students wrote, we both graded. I graded a stack and then he looked over them to see what he would have given. It was sort of double blind, in that he didn't mark them up until I looked at them, it was awesome to have this safety net of sorts before I was doing everything on my own. This also gave me time to see what his grading style was and how it aligned with mine (even though at the beginning, I had no idea what my grading style was!)
-Let your student teacher experiment. This goes along with the independence and trying new stuff, but I decided to try to use Lit Circles in the honors english section because I was too scared to lead 50 minute classroom discussions on my own, and he thought it was a great idea. The students loved it and it really worked well, plus it let me off the hook to an extent!
-Let your student teacher plan in the way that suits her best. I heard horror stories of my fellow student teachers who had to submit full lesson plans to their CT a week in advance and how much work that was, where my CT just wanted to make sure I was planning something. For me, it was a weekly outline for each of my classes with room for changes, but all of my major topics were getting covered. His philosophy (and mine), is that if you are teaching like you should be teaching, the standards are getting covered, and when I would sometimes go back and double check the standards for lesson plans to turn in for my university requirements, he was absolutely right.
Have fun, help her succeed and let her become as independent as possible. Go read a book!
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 6:43 AM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
-Let your student teacher teach something that is 100% her own. I did a ton of original lessons in Creative Writing, some worked, some didn't, but they were MINE. In a similar vein...
-Give your student teacher as much of your material as you can. My Mentor gave me all of his course documents at the beginning of my student teaching. Literally, every hand out that he normally used for the whole semester. Lucky for me, they were all word docs, so I was able to change and edit them to fit my lessons. I used a lot of his stuff and just changed my name and made things a little more specific to my exact lesson plans. The students had no idea that I was stealing his stuff, I was sure to own everything I took from him as if I had created it from scratch.
-Let your student teacher work through things on her own. WaspEnterprises was absolutely correct in the need for independence. Sure it's terrifying to be the only teacher in the classroom as a student teacher, but until the student teacher is the only source of authority, by merely being in the room, you undermine her authority. And don't just sit in the hallway, go down to the teacher's lounge or the library or something, let them teach. I took over fully in creative writing after 2 weeks of just being a presence, and it was scary and exhilarating and fun.
She will have trouble, I had a few lessons that absolutely TANKED but I talked to my CT and he gave me some feedback and together we tweaked it and he observed the next class and it was fine. Not a great lesson, but not all of them are.
-ALWAYS reconvene at the end of the day and the beginning of the day. In between, too, if you can! I got to school about 30 minutes before class started and it gave us a great time to just talk about how things were going and what ideas I had. Then at the end of the day, we talked for another 20-30 minutes about how everything went. This happened almost every single day, and through this, I was able to catch a lot of potential problems before they developed. Some of this was just time to rant, but it was a great time to get stuff into the open so it didn't stew.
-If she's not already, get her involved in grading as soon as possible. The first few essays the students wrote, we both graded. I graded a stack and then he looked over them to see what he would have given. It was sort of double blind, in that he didn't mark them up until I looked at them, it was awesome to have this safety net of sorts before I was doing everything on my own. This also gave me time to see what his grading style was and how it aligned with mine (even though at the beginning, I had no idea what my grading style was!)
-Let your student teacher experiment. This goes along with the independence and trying new stuff, but I decided to try to use Lit Circles in the honors english section because I was too scared to lead 50 minute classroom discussions on my own, and he thought it was a great idea. The students loved it and it really worked well, plus it let me off the hook to an extent!
-Let your student teacher plan in the way that suits her best. I heard horror stories of my fellow student teachers who had to submit full lesson plans to their CT a week in advance and how much work that was, where my CT just wanted to make sure I was planning something. For me, it was a weekly outline for each of my classes with room for changes, but all of my major topics were getting covered. His philosophy (and mine), is that if you are teaching like you should be teaching, the standards are getting covered, and when I would sometimes go back and double check the standards for lesson plans to turn in for my university requirements, he was absolutely right.
Have fun, help her succeed and let her become as independent as possible. Go read a book!
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 6:43 AM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
Independence and autonomy, and them directing the course of feedback. Soon they will be on their own right? Think of yourself as a resource for them. Although you sound really nice, you also sound too controlling and too focused on "fixing the mistakes you see" to be as useful as you can be. Similar with the lesson planning. Start with broad objectives you agree on, and then let her go offf and prep her section independently, returning to you if she has questions or needs additional support.
Just as we wouldn't do a worksheet for the students in class "to help", you can't be doing 90% of the planning if you want her to end up able to plan a lesson.
Your control of the agenda in reflection / feedback has to be more indirect. Just for example, you give a list of topics that you think are important for effective teaching: instructions, discipline, sequence of lesson activities, atmosphere, etc. Then you give her the list and ask her to decide which ones she wants to talk about in relation to today's teaching. And even if she did something super shitty in topic X, you don't bring it up unless she wants to talk about it.
Help her reflect rigourously and deeply, ask for observable classroom events / specific quotes to back up general feelings. Don't let her jump to theories / conclusions about what happened before thorough objective description to back up her theories / interpretations. Look up "Experiential Learning Cycle" if you want to think further about this aspect of mentoring.
She will suck in many ways, she's new. Focusing on that is not necessarily the most productive path for her development.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:00 AM on October 30, 2011
Just as we wouldn't do a worksheet for the students in class "to help", you can't be doing 90% of the planning if you want her to end up able to plan a lesson.
Your control of the agenda in reflection / feedback has to be more indirect. Just for example, you give a list of topics that you think are important for effective teaching: instructions, discipline, sequence of lesson activities, atmosphere, etc. Then you give her the list and ask her to decide which ones she wants to talk about in relation to today's teaching. And even if she did something super shitty in topic X, you don't bring it up unless she wants to talk about it.
Help her reflect rigourously and deeply, ask for observable classroom events / specific quotes to back up general feelings. Don't let her jump to theories / conclusions about what happened before thorough objective description to back up her theories / interpretations. Look up "Experiential Learning Cycle" if you want to think further about this aspect of mentoring.
She will suck in many ways, she's new. Focusing on that is not necessarily the most productive path for her development.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:00 AM on October 30, 2011
As a student teacher, I had a great cooperating teacher (Mr. M) and a meh cooperating teacher (Mrs.C). Mr. M and I were a great match because we had very similar teaching styles. I walked in the first day and he had a desk set up for me full of supplies and extra copies of teacher editions! I was so excited about that. It really made an impact on me and I rose to the occasion; I immediately felt like I had a place in the class and wasn't this awkward observer/helper. Aside from lessons, he encouraged me to experiment with classroom management - like moving the desks around to a pattern I wanted to try. He was great too that when I would suggest an idea, he never shot them down; he'd say, "What do you want to do?" Some he knew would fail, and some he knew would succeed, but he also knew that those failures and successes would mean more to me because I learned them on my own. It wasn't about producing a perfect lesson, it was about me learning how to be the best teacher I could be.
I've also had several student teachers and have tried to use Mr. M's model. The hardest part (for me) was trying to step back and share my class with them. I'd have to fight natural urges to jump in and correct them (I had seen another co-op teacher horribly embarrass her student teacher in front of the class and had sworn I would never do that.) I followed Mr. M's example and had a desk and materials waiting for them. The first few days, I let them observe and get a feel for the routine of the class and then slowly started handing lessons over to them to handle, gradually building until they were teaching everything. Think of them like another student in your class - give them timely and honest feedback and time to reflect on what they've done and what they would do differently next time. I would stress to my student teachers that it wasn't about perfect lessons, it was about helping them feel comfortable in their teacher skin and being the best they can at it.
Good luck!
posted by NoraCharles at 7:34 AM on October 30, 2011
I've also had several student teachers and have tried to use Mr. M's model. The hardest part (for me) was trying to step back and share my class with them. I'd have to fight natural urges to jump in and correct them (I had seen another co-op teacher horribly embarrass her student teacher in front of the class and had sworn I would never do that.) I followed Mr. M's example and had a desk and materials waiting for them. The first few days, I let them observe and get a feel for the routine of the class and then slowly started handing lessons over to them to handle, gradually building until they were teaching everything. Think of them like another student in your class - give them timely and honest feedback and time to reflect on what they've done and what they would do differently next time. I would stress to my student teachers that it wasn't about perfect lessons, it was about helping them feel comfortable in their teacher skin and being the best they can at it.
Good luck!
posted by NoraCharles at 7:34 AM on October 30, 2011
Response by poster: Thank you everyone for your thoughtful, helpful answers.
Meatbomb, your answer was really helpful. I think you're right about narrowing it down to a single focus area.
But...what if she is given a topic and asked to go off and plan and comes back with "I guess I'll just do it exactly the way you did it last time"? What if every lesson plan she's come up with on her own is lecture and have them take notes, then read them something, then test them on it? That's where we're at. She's literally just copying what I've done and when it doesn't go well, she has no idea what to do. When I ask what she could have done differently, she gets a panicked look on her face and can't come up with any solutions.
Her field supervisor told me to explicitly model the lesson planning process a little longer, as it seems like she's not getting it. She's seeing the same thing in the lesson plans she's turning in. She also said that she feels like I've been really helpful and supportive and that my student teacher feels really happy and comfortable in the placement.
I guess my dilemma is more, do I let her plan and then let the lesson fail and help her be reflective afterward, or do I continue to scaffold it and support her so she gets better and doesn't have to fail over and over?
Thank you again for everyone sharing their experience. It's been really helpful to my thinking process and forcing me to be more reflective in how I'm approaching this.
posted by guster4lovers at 1:13 PM on October 30, 2011
Meatbomb, your answer was really helpful. I think you're right about narrowing it down to a single focus area.
But...what if she is given a topic and asked to go off and plan and comes back with "I guess I'll just do it exactly the way you did it last time"? What if every lesson plan she's come up with on her own is lecture and have them take notes, then read them something, then test them on it? That's where we're at. She's literally just copying what I've done and when it doesn't go well, she has no idea what to do. When I ask what she could have done differently, she gets a panicked look on her face and can't come up with any solutions.
Her field supervisor told me to explicitly model the lesson planning process a little longer, as it seems like she's not getting it. She's seeing the same thing in the lesson plans she's turning in. She also said that she feels like I've been really helpful and supportive and that my student teacher feels really happy and comfortable in the placement.
I guess my dilemma is more, do I let her plan and then let the lesson fail and help her be reflective afterward, or do I continue to scaffold it and support her so she gets better and doesn't have to fail over and over?
Thank you again for everyone sharing their experience. It's been really helpful to my thinking process and forcing me to be more reflective in how I'm approaching this.
posted by guster4lovers at 1:13 PM on October 30, 2011
Again, I'd say be as direct as possible. Maybe you ought to look over her lesson plans in advance and make up scenarios. If you can see a place where a problem might arise, ask her how she would deal with it. Treat it as an exercise in having a backup plan or two.
If my CT thinks my lessons are too monotonous (or the format isn't varied enough) I'd really like to be told. At least in my program, variety in instruction is promoted. I am planning for the unit I will teach and I'm really struggling to find much outside of lecture, small activity, and test as a unit format because there is so much material to get through. Maybe a suggestion of another type of class you'd like to see would help?
posted by sarae at 2:03 PM on October 30, 2011
If my CT thinks my lessons are too monotonous (or the format isn't varied enough) I'd really like to be told. At least in my program, variety in instruction is promoted. I am planning for the unit I will teach and I'm really struggling to find much outside of lecture, small activity, and test as a unit format because there is so much material to get through. Maybe a suggestion of another type of class you'd like to see would help?
posted by sarae at 2:03 PM on October 30, 2011
Also, you could remind her of (what I figure) she has just learned in her courses about multiple intelligences, learning modalities, that sort of thing, and have a discussion about whether or not she thinks her lesson format is varied enough to address the diverse learners in the class.
I am writing a paper on this right now... should really get back at that.
posted by sarae at 2:13 PM on October 30, 2011
I am writing a paper on this right now... should really get back at that.
posted by sarae at 2:13 PM on October 30, 2011
When I have had a student teacher working with me I have done a few things that I have found useful:
1. Document stuff. Meetings, observations, ideas, notes
2. When giving feedback make it feedforward - always used positives before constructives
3. Used graphic organisers to say "what could I/You have done differently" generate possibilities, explore results, consequences etc
4. When I modelled a lesson I identified what I thought were key compnents - "today I want you to think about how I use my voice, my questioning techniques and how I ue wait time" so that both of us focussed on good technique. Sometimes I have got my student teachers to measure wait time or to use a rubric to identify what kinds of questions I used. This was as useful to me as it was them.
It's a few years since I had a student teacher but I always found it gave me a valuable chance to look at my own teaching.
posted by chairish at 4:25 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
1. Document stuff. Meetings, observations, ideas, notes
2. When giving feedback make it feedforward - always used positives before constructives
3. Used graphic organisers to say "what could I/You have done differently" generate possibilities, explore results, consequences etc
4. When I modelled a lesson I identified what I thought were key compnents - "today I want you to think about how I use my voice, my questioning techniques and how I ue wait time" so that both of us focussed on good technique. Sometimes I have got my student teachers to measure wait time or to use a rubric to identify what kinds of questions I used. This was as useful to me as it was them.
It's a few years since I had a student teacher but I always found it gave me a valuable chance to look at my own teaching.
posted by chairish at 4:25 PM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]
I guess my dilemma is more, do I let her plan and then let the lesson fail and help her be reflective afterward, or do I continue to scaffold it and support her so she gets better and doesn't have to fail over and over?
Teacher here. I would think of her as one of my students and continue to scaffold, even though it might be more work for you. If it seems like she's planning ineffective lessons, are you able to show her some helpful websites (I like readwritethink) that show what excellent lesson plans look like?
While on the one hand I'd be tempted to let her write her own plans and then discuss their efficacy so she can learn by doing, you have students to think about who shouldn't have to suffer with ineffective teaching.
posted by kinetic at 5:12 PM on October 30, 2011
Teacher here. I would think of her as one of my students and continue to scaffold, even though it might be more work for you. If it seems like she's planning ineffective lessons, are you able to show her some helpful websites (I like readwritethink) that show what excellent lesson plans look like?
While on the one hand I'd be tempted to let her write her own plans and then discuss their efficacy so she can learn by doing, you have students to think about who shouldn't have to suffer with ineffective teaching.
posted by kinetic at 5:12 PM on October 30, 2011
I would say, re. your lesson planning issue, to scaffold the process - you give her freedom and agency but within a framework that guides her to better results.
So just for example, you make a list of the 8 types of lessons she's seen you do / are in her ed. textbook... 1) lecture and note-taking 2) students create self study materials 3) group problem solving 4) interactive lecture with discussion questions...
So now you have some framework for her to work within. Maybe you ask her guiding Qs... "Which of these formats have you taught the kids recently? Which ones will appeal most, and best fit the upcoming topics? How to balance variety in presentation with student familiarity with lesson procedures?" etc etc... Once you've talked through these things in a Socratic way, you've helped her to realize what she already knows: that she can't just keep copying one standardized plan because that sucks :) Then she can go off and plan an interactive student debate or whatever you've together decided is the best fit from the list.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:42 AM on October 31, 2011
So just for example, you make a list of the 8 types of lessons she's seen you do / are in her ed. textbook... 1) lecture and note-taking 2) students create self study materials 3) group problem solving 4) interactive lecture with discussion questions...
So now you have some framework for her to work within. Maybe you ask her guiding Qs... "Which of these formats have you taught the kids recently? Which ones will appeal most, and best fit the upcoming topics? How to balance variety in presentation with student familiarity with lesson procedures?" etc etc... Once you've talked through these things in a Socratic way, you've helped her to realize what she already knows: that she can't just keep copying one standardized plan because that sucks :) Then she can go off and plan an interactive student debate or whatever you've together decided is the best fit from the list.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:42 AM on October 31, 2011
Response by poster: Meatbomb, I like you a lot. I used a lot of your suggestions today and this week didn't make me want to pull my hair out.
Today I gave her three choices on how to do an powerpoint she wanted to do (lecture + notetaking, lecture + questions on a literary device/character, or discussion and critical thinking questions). She chose option B, but it really felt a lot more like her making the instructional choices and me just guiding the process.
I had her do a bunch of observations this week too. She actually saw a lot of the things that she does and decided that it's not what she wants to do. It became a really productive conversation.
I also chose to focus this week on building community (which was a success - she's not scared of the kids! and they're actually talking to her more!) and giving clear, concise instructions with appropriate wait time. That's slowly getting better, too. We're still scripting, but she's doing more of it now.
Thank you all for your help. I feel so much more helpful and that we're finally on the right track again.
Thanks Metafilter!
posted by guster4lovers at 3:20 PM on November 4, 2011
Today I gave her three choices on how to do an powerpoint she wanted to do (lecture + notetaking, lecture + questions on a literary device/character, or discussion and critical thinking questions). She chose option B, but it really felt a lot more like her making the instructional choices and me just guiding the process.
I had her do a bunch of observations this week too. She actually saw a lot of the things that she does and decided that it's not what she wants to do. It became a really productive conversation.
I also chose to focus this week on building community (which was a success - she's not scared of the kids! and they're actually talking to her more!) and giving clear, concise instructions with appropriate wait time. That's slowly getting better, too. We're still scripting, but she's doing more of it now.
Thank you all for your help. I feel so much more helpful and that we're finally on the right track again.
Thanks Metafilter!
posted by guster4lovers at 3:20 PM on November 4, 2011
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For me, the nicest thing my other cooperating teachers did was ask me what kind of stuff my masters/credential program is having me do. It was really unexpected given how stressed we all were to get stuff ready to go for a seamless transition from them to me, but god, it was so nice to get to talk theory and practice with someone other than my professors. Asking your student teacher what their style is in terms of teaching and classroom management is a nice way to model tapping prior knowledge, acknowledging multiple perspectives, etc etc. it sounds like your mentee is having a hard time, too. Just set aside some time to be like, "Hey! Here's where you're doing great. I also noticed X, let's talk about it."
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 11:48 PM on October 29, 2011