[NOBE-L] Tips for student teaching

[Valeria Jacobs]

Hi Jackie,

Congratulations on making it to student teaching! Below are some other suggestions that might be helpful.

Communicate regularly with your collaborating teacher. If you are going to be using images, you need to know what those are, perhaps either braille this out   or have a document with descriptions and layout for yourself in case you need to reference or work directly with students. Especially given the situation with online learning, I do not recommend having too many tabs open at the same time. Keep any descriptions you may be using or notes for yourself brief because activities move fast. I suggest creating a tracking system for yourself, perhaps an online document where you indicate the date, your lesson plan or materials and any notes for yourself so when you go back to review things, everything is in the same place. You can do something similar for student work, create a folder/file system on Google Drive which is very accessible.

If you are working with younger students, tracking growth and keeping tabs on student work is huge. You may want to create an individual portfolio system, similar to what I described above for each of your students. Aside from communicating with your collaborating teacher, get very clear directives on what you are expected to be doing for each individual lesson. Are you observing? Are you taking notes? Are you leading a hands-on activity? Are you expected to run small groups or a whole class discussion? If these things are not offered to you and you notice time goes by, you may suggest taking some of these responsibilities on. Start small, like leading the warm-up activity and build up to other things. Set small, trackable goals each day/week.

One of the biggest takeaways from my own student teaching experience is that because these rooms are not ours where we would have developed our own organizational systems, it is very important to understand what your role is. You don’t want to be in someone’s way, but you also want to get the most out of the experience. Don’t be pushy but advocate for yourself if you need information. Set up times where you can speak with your collaborative teacher about ideas  you want to try or things that you are nervous about. There will be parts of the experience that feel awkward but things get easier over time. There may be times where you don’t feel super prepared, but it is especially important to review whatever information or materials you have not only in advance but after the fact so you can make adjustments.

Lastly, think about what your own strengths and interests in the classroom are. What do you know that you would really like to do? There may be things that you have to teach that you are not super excited about, but think of the things that you are excited about. Interest and motivation in a subject area are  often the best way to get better at something. Be OK with making mistakes because you will make plenty of them. That is part of learning. Don’t get hung up on small things that you can’t control, but be aware of classroom management strategies, even in the virtual platform.

I hope this helps and I am happy to speak off-line if you would like,

Warmly,

—
Valeria

> On Oct 25, 2020, at 5:01 PM, Jackie Larrauri via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> I am looking for any tips you all might have about how to make my student teaching experience the best it can be? I want to make sure I’m successful in my two placements this coming semester so am looking for any advice you all might have from your experiences.
> Here are some ideas I have about making it a success:
> Communicate with the teacher as early as possible (depending on when my state gets me my placement of course as they have been known to get these out late)
> Prepare my own lesson materials as much as possible as most materials are not accessible since they’re pictures
> Ask about technology used in the classroom as some are not accessible such as seesaw
> Braille student names for attendance tracking
> Make computer data sheets, student lists, and any other important information
> Thanks in advance,
> Jackie
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