Fourth Post

Student Teachers Chatboard
http://teachers.net/mentors/student_teaching/posts.html

Topic: Needs some words of wisdom- Need advice on CT
Dates Spanning: 10/23/08-10/29/08

Terri, a student teacher who is in her 9th week of student teaching, explained that she is feeling frustrated with her CT (cooperative teacher). Terri explained that there is a general lack of communication. From day one, Terri felt that the CT was not giving her feedback or guidance. (The CT didn’t even introduce Terri to the class.) Aside from the lack of guidance from the CT, Terri expressed other concerns. For example, the CT assumes that Terri knows how to do a lot of things (which she sometimes does not know), does not give Terri much freedom in the classroom, and treats her more like an assistant than a student teacher. Terri is also bothered by the fact that the CT changes a lot of things at the last minute causing Terri to feel out of the loop. Terri explained that every time she tries to speak with the CT, she is busy.

All of the people who responded to this post agreed that it is the CT’s responsibility to give a student teacher feedback and guidance. However, their advice on how to handle the situation varied slightly. One person, Jennifer, advised to make an appointment with the CT and to be prepared with some notes about some key concerns so as to stay on topic and avoid venting. Jennifer also advised to speak with the university supervisor. Another teacher, Sharon, expressed empathy for Terri because she had a similar negative experience in her first semester as a student teacher. Sharon explained that she spoke with her advisor and made sure that she was placed with a different CT in her next semester of student teaching. Her reason for handling the situation in that manner was because she didn’t want to let her negative student teaching experience with her first CT ruin her impression about the field of education. Sharon advised that she was able to be placed with a new CT in the second semester and had a wonderful learning experience. Similar to Jennifer, Sharon urged Terri to speak to her advisor. However, unlike Jennifer, Sharon did not mention speaking with the CT at all. Eric responded to Sharon’s post by stating that it might be better for Terri to stick it out with the current CT since she is already nine weeks into the semester. His suggestion for Terri was to strive to open the lines of communication with the CT. Eric proposed that Terri ask her CT out for coffee- away from the school setting- in order to discuss specific areas of concern. For example, Terri could explain that she wants feedback on her instruction, discipline, classroom management, etc. Eric also recommended setting up a time with the CT to obtain this feedback and discuss ways to improve.

Useful Information for My Teaching Future:
This post (and the responses to this post) made me realize how important it will be for me to communicate effectively with my CT from the start of the semester. I’m going to make a conscious effort, right away, to keep the lines of communication open so that I know what is expected of me and what/how I can improve. I learned from working in the business field that it is crucial to create a good rapport with supervisors, managers, co-workers, etc.- and I imagine that this is the case in the field of education as well. Having a good rapport with co-workers established a comfortable work environment and enabled me to quickly learn things (that might have taken me years to learn on my own) from others with more experience. I’m definitely going to take the knowledge that I gleaned in the business world (especially “people skills”), and apply as much of it as possible when I begin student teaching.

Question I Posted:
As I was reading through some of the older posts, I realized that many student teachers expressed a lot of the same concerns. Most had to do with communication issues with CT’s and self-doubt and/or anxiety in front of the class. After reading through 2 months of posts, I felt overwhelmed and nervous! I didn’t think that student teaching would be such an overwhelming experience. I guess you can say I was “blissfully ignorant” about student teaching before I looked at this chatboard! Since I’m going to be student teaching in the spring, I started my own thread and asked for suggestions on how to prepare. I stated that I know first impressions are key and that I would like to make a good first impression with my CT and with the students in the class. I also noted that I want to be able to get the most out of my teaching experience without stepping on anyone’s toes.

Response to My Post:
So far, I received one response to my post. Someone named Steve gave me a list of the top ten things I should do. Ironically, and going along with the theme of this particular blog post, number one and ten were “pray you get a good CT!” Steve also advised that I would know by the third day whether or not my CT is a good match and if he/she isn’t, I should ask for another placement. The other eight things included: clearing my schedule of everything else (apparently student teaching is quite time consuming), eating right, sleeping more than five hours per night, etc.

I’m not sure I learned too much more from this specific response; the person who posted didn’t really respond to the details of my post. Nonetheless, it seems as though most people will agree that the most important thing about student teaching (or the factor that will determine whether you have a positive or negative experience) is obtaining a CT who can fulfill his/her role as a CT!